LUCKNOW, March 8 -- Responding to questions about allegations made by Samajwadi Party that Form-7 applications were deliberately used to strike down the names of its voters, Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer Navdeep Rinwa on Saturday said as per guidelines of the Special Intensive Revision-2026, no name can be deleted from the draft voter list published on January 6, 2026, without notice. He also said a reasoned order by the electoral registration officer/assistant electoral registration officer as per the prescribed procedure is required for the deletion. Rinwa answered the question without naming the SP. He also gave details of the participation of political parties in the SIR process. "Following the commencement of the Special Intensive Revision-2026, five meetings were held with representatives of recognised political parties at the state level in he chief electoral officer's office. They were apprised of the latest Election Commission of India guidelines and the current progress of the work, their queries were addressed, and their feedback, suggestions were received. According to available data, the main opposition Samajwadi Party fielded more than 1.57 lakh booth level agents (BLAs), which is the second highest number of BLAs after the ruling BJP with more than 1.61 lakh BLAs. The SP applied for inclusion of 11,051 electors' names and exclusion of 47 names. The ruling BJP gave applications for the inclusion of 26,279 electors and asked for exclusion of 1741 names. The BSP fielded more than 1.54 lakh BLAs who applied for inclusion of 1761 names and deletion of seven. "Five meetings with the representatives of recognised political parties took place on October 29, 2025, November 19, 2025, December 8, 2025, January 6, 2026 and the fifth meeting on January 27, 2026," he told the press. He said, "Instructions have been issued for the hearing of voters whose details do not match. To minimise inconvenience, they may be exempted from personal attendance during the hearing process. Voters who cannot attend the hearing in person for any reason can authorise any person to attend on their behalf by signing or affixing their thumb impression." "For the convenience of voters, EROs and AEROs are also conducting hearings at polling stations, and booth level officers are also assisting voters in submitting documents. This reduces the distance voters have to travel and voters are also attending the hearing. For logical discrepancies, all district election officers and electoral registration officers have been directed that the BLOs will give the notice to the voter or his relative and upload the receipt, photo and the record of the relationship."...