The Crossbill News Desk
A startling discrepancy has emerged in the ongoing voter roll revision for the 2026 panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh, where a single house in Mahoba district’s Jaitpur gram panchayat has been shown to shelter 4,271 registered voters, according to the draft voter list.
The Uttar Pradesh State Election Commission (SEC), responsible for preparing and revising electoral rolls for panchayat polls, maintains a separate list from the Election Commission of India, which manages state assembly and parliamentary elections.
The figure of 4,271 voters amounts to nearly one-fourth of Jaitpur’s total electorate of 16,069. Election officials have described the anomaly as a clerical error, emphasizing that the voter names themselves are genuine.
Booth-level officers (BLOs), conducting door-to-door verification, found that three entire wards had mistakenly been tagged to a single property — house number 803.
Assistant district election officer RP Vishwakarma, as quoted by Hindustan Times said, “In rural areas, house numbers are often not consistently recorded. During data entry, multiple names were wrongly aligned to one address. This is being corrected.”
Additional district magistrate (ADM) Kunwar Pankaj Singh termed it a “house numbering mismatch” similar to one uncovered during the 2021 revision exercise.
“The voters are real. Only their addresses have been wrongly clubbed. The earlier rolls too had similar irregularities which we are now working to fix,” he said.
For the house owner, the revelation was shocking, and neighbours expressed disbelief that a single property could officially host thousands of voters. The anomaly quickly became a talking point in the village, with political opponents seizing on it as evidence of poor oversight.
Jaitpur is not an isolated case. In nearby Panwari town, the revision exercise revealed 243 voters registered under house number 996 in Ward 13, and another 185 names listed under house number 997. Residents, baffled to see hundreds of people officially “residing” in their homes, lodged complaints with the BLOs.
Interestingly, while the houses belonged to scheduled caste individuals, the voter lists included names from the general category and other communities. Supervisors have since confirmed the discrepancies and directed corrections.
Officials insist these anomalies stem from flawed address mapping and were not deliberate.
The revelations come amid a larger clean-up drive, following an AI-assisted audit last year that flagged over one lakh duplicate or suspicious voter entries across Mahoba district. Out of 5.66 lakh registered voters in 2021, AI identified 24,000 questionable entries in Jaitpur, 22,000 in Panwari, 46,000 in Kabrai, and 12,000 in Charkhari block.
In response, the State Election Commission launched a door-to-door verification campaign involving 486 BLOs and 49 supervisors across 272 gram panchayats. The drive, set to run until September 29, aims to add new voters, remove deceased names, and correct discrepancies. Draft voter rolls are expected to be published on December 5, after public objections are invited.
While officials maintain that these are minor clerical issues, residents argue that repeated errors erode trust in the electoral process.
Opposition leaders have cited the irregularities as proof of “systemic negligence” undermining election transparency.
Vishwakarma reassured that corrective measures are underway, stating, “Such anomalies do not indicate bogus voting. The rolls are being revised thoroughly to ensure fairness.”
The Uttar Pradesh State Election Commission (SEC), responsible for preparing and revising electoral rolls for panchayat polls, maintains a separate list from the Election Commission of India, which manages state assembly and parliamentary elections.
The figure of 4,271 voters amounts to nearly one-fourth of Jaitpur’s total electorate of 16,069. Election officials have described the anomaly as a clerical error, emphasizing that the voter names themselves are genuine.
Booth-level officers (BLOs), conducting door-to-door verification, found that three entire wards had mistakenly been tagged to a single property — house number 803.
Assistant district election officer RP Vishwakarma, as quoted by Hindustan Times said, “In rural areas, house numbers are often not consistently recorded. During data entry, multiple names were wrongly aligned to one address. This is being corrected.”
Additional district magistrate (ADM) Kunwar Pankaj Singh termed it a “house numbering mismatch” similar to one uncovered during the 2021 revision exercise.
“The voters are real. Only their addresses have been wrongly clubbed. The earlier rolls too had similar irregularities which we are now working to fix,” he said.
For the house owner, the revelation was shocking, and neighbours expressed disbelief that a single property could officially host thousands of voters. The anomaly quickly became a talking point in the village, with political opponents seizing on it as evidence of poor oversight.
Jaitpur is not an isolated case. In nearby Panwari town, the revision exercise revealed 243 voters registered under house number 996 in Ward 13, and another 185 names listed under house number 997. Residents, baffled to see hundreds of people officially “residing” in their homes, lodged complaints with the BLOs.
Interestingly, while the houses belonged to scheduled caste individuals, the voter lists included names from the general category and other communities. Supervisors have since confirmed the discrepancies and directed corrections.
Officials insist these anomalies stem from flawed address mapping and were not deliberate.
The revelations come amid a larger clean-up drive, following an AI-assisted audit last year that flagged over one lakh duplicate or suspicious voter entries across Mahoba district. Out of 5.66 lakh registered voters in 2021, AI identified 24,000 questionable entries in Jaitpur, 22,000 in Panwari, 46,000 in Kabrai, and 12,000 in Charkhari block.
In response, the State Election Commission launched a door-to-door verification campaign involving 486 BLOs and 49 supervisors across 272 gram panchayats. The drive, set to run until September 29, aims to add new voters, remove deceased names, and correct discrepancies. Draft voter rolls are expected to be published on December 5, after public objections are invited.
While officials maintain that these are minor clerical issues, residents argue that repeated errors erode trust in the electoral process.
Opposition leaders have cited the irregularities as proof of “systemic negligence” undermining election transparency.
Vishwakarma reassured that corrective measures are underway, stating, “Such anomalies do not indicate bogus voting. The rolls are being revised thoroughly to ensure fairness.”
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