LUCKNOW, Oct. 24 -- A massive post-SIR voter list anomaly in Pilibhit Sadar has triggered the Election Commission's first statewide scrutiny in Uttar Pradesh, casting a long shadow over the integrity of closely fought seats in elections to come. In a constituency won by barely 6,970 votes by the BJP against the SP in 2022, the Opposition's detection of 16,554 discrepancies-and the poll panel's subsequent confirmation of 10,470 irregular entries-has set off statewide alarm bells over how undetected roll manipulations on this scale could single-handedly overturn narrow victory margins in future polls. BJP candidate Sanjay Gangwar had won against the SP's Shailendra Singh Gangwar. With the ECI ordering legal action against serving and former electoral registration officers (EROs) over irregularities detected now, the controversy has put the spotlight on the 'disenfranchisement issue'. "Sitting in a cyber cafe, I saw someone unable to download EPIC (electors photo identity card). Alarmed, I checked all seven voters in my family only to find two had different names with same EPIC number. We had checked the final draft list in April and had it correct," said Rehan Alvi, a lawyer, who was among the first few to notice the glitch. This revelation continued in a series and brought out 16,554 such names with errors, out of which the election commission accepted 10,470 erroneous entries. "My brother Nizan's name changed to Kadir Khan and sister Gaus Fatima's name to Afreen," he added. "Names of 13,150 voters were changed despite the EPIC number remaining the same, while in 884 cases names were not found. A total of 2,600 names of people were added who are actually not residing in the constituency. This takes the total number of discrepancies to 16,554 across all booths," said Kumud Gangwar, a whistleblower in the case, AICC member and former state general secretary in the party. "Other constituencies the across the state may also have similar discrepancies in the voter list as during random search, similar issues came from a few other constituencies including Puranpur, Bisalpur and Bakhera constituencies. We will work upon them too," he said. In this constituency, 2,59,821 votes were polled where winner BJP's Sanjay Gangwar got 1,25,506 and SP's Shailendra Singh Gangwar 1,18,536, leaving a margin of 6,970, less than the number of votes cited under discrepancy by the Congress. "As the news spread, I checked votes in my family and found Ilias Ali Mohd written against my name while names of my father Rafiq Ahmad and brother Rehan Ahmad were missing," said Noor-ud-din another voter of the constituency. Kumud Gangwar said, "We cross checked each of the 3.48 lakh voters with a team of over 50 people and took 96 hours to bring out the total discrepancy." Uttar Pradesh Congress has decided to launch a campaign to demand checking of all voter lists across the state. "This discrepancy debars an eligible voter from the right to exercise franchise. We are taking legal opinion to go forward on the issue across state," said UP Congress chief Aradhana Mishra. "We have seven voters in the family, and at present, two names are missing from the list online," said Mohd Yasin Ansari. "What was further alarming that majority votes with discrepancy were from a particular community," added Kumud Gangwar. Meanwhile, the ECI has ordered legal action against the current and former electoral registration officers (EROs) in connection with irregularities detected in the voter list of Pilibhit Sadar assembly constituency. This follows irregularities detected in 10,470 voter entries. Departmental action will also be initiated against both EROs and the services of the Voter Registration Centre's Computer Assistant (VRC operator) will be terminated. During the investigation, the district election officer (DEO) detected irregularities in 10,470 voter entries. UP chief electoral officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa said a detailed investigation report was received on Thursday from the DEO, Pilibhit, regarding a complaint that the EPIC number of voters registered in the voter list for Pilibhit assembly constituency displayed another voters' details. "According to the investigation report received, 13,779 Form-8 entries were made by the computer assistant (VRC operator) at the voter registration centre of the assembly constituency 127-Pilibhit between May 31, 2026 and August 29, 2026 for amendments to voter details. Of these, 4,717 forms were entered till July 16, 2026, and the remaining 9,062 forms entered between July 17, 2026 and August 29, 2026," said a press statement. No forms or records related to these entries were found available in the office. Of these 13,779 Form-8, 10,470 were approved and 3,309 rejected. Thus, irregularities were found in 10,470 entries....