Lucknow, Aug. 21 -- The Election Commission of India (ECI) has started a probe into Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav's complaint about irregularities in electoral rolls in various districts of Uttar Pradesh. Following the complaint, the ECI directed district magistrates to scrutinise voter lists to determine whether wrongful deletions had occurred, as alleged. The district magistrates of Kasganj, Jaunpur, Barabanki, and Lucknow have completed their probe and, in posts on social media platform X, dismissed Yadav's claims as baseless and misleading. Addressing a press conference on Sunday (August 17), chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar had stated that the commission had not received any affidavits from Uttar Pradesh or from Yadav. Replying to the CEC's statement, the SP chief on Monday distributed copies of affidavits to media persons in the Parliament complex. "The affidavits have been filed with the Election Commission of India (ECI), alleging large-scale voter deletions and irregularities in Uttar Pradesh during the 2022 assembly polls," Yadav said. Yadav also said nearly 18,000 affidavits had been prepared and submitted within the deadline given to him after he received a notice from the poll body. The affidavits, according to Yadav, related to anomalies in constituencies such as Amapur, Bakshi Ka Talab, Jaunpur Sadar and Kursi. He said these documented cases of voter deletions, which, he alleged, were carried out in a targeted manner against certain communities. "Communities like Maurya, Pal, Bhagel and Rathore have seen voter deletions aimed at weakening their political impact. In some seats, we lost by narrow margins, and these deletions played a direct role," he said. Replying to the SP chief's allegation, the Lucknow DM, in a post on X, said a complaint was received regarding the wrongful deletion of the names of 13 voters from the voter list in the 169-Bakshi Ka Talab assembly constituency of Lucknow district. Investigation revealed that the name of one voter was lawfully removed in 2012 due to no longer residing in the area, he said. Regarding a separate complaint, DM said due to the death of a female voter, her name was duly removed from the list. The names of the remaining voters are present in the voter list, he said. The Kasganj DM, in his post on X, said, "A complaint was received via email regarding the incorrect deletion of the names of 8 voters under the 101 Amanpur assembly constituency of Kasganj district. The investigation revealed that the names of 7 voters were listed twice in the voter list and one name was deleted as per the rules." In a separate post, the Jaunpur DM said, "A complaint was received via email regarding the erroneous deletion of the names of five voters under the Jaunpur assembly constituency 366 in Jaunpur district. All five mentioned voters had passed away before 2022. This was confirmed by the family members of the deceased voters, local residents, and the local councillor. The names of the deceased have been duly removed as per the rules. Therefore, the aforementioned complaint is completely baseless and misleading." In a post, Barabanki DM said, "Affidavits from 2 voters of the 266-Kursi assembly constituency in Barabanki district were received regarding the erroneous deletion of their names from the voter list. The investigation found that the names of both the aforementioned voters are registered in the voter list." Replying to the DMs' statements, Yadav, in a post on X on Wednesday, said, "The public has an innocent question for the DMs: why did the response come after so many years?"...