UP poll body apologizes for voter-list post

The Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer’s office apologized Tuesday for the tone and language of a social-media post about erroneous names in voter lists, saying the comments were not appropriate for an official account and promising more formal communication. The apology followed criticism of a post responding to Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh, who had questioned whether an apparent voter-list error reflected caste bias. The entry showed the name “Ramhit Yadav” rendered as “Ram ne Yadav ko Maara,” a Hindi phrase meaning “Ram hit Yadav.” Singh challenged Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the error and asked whether the computer was casteist or serving a political party’s agenda. The Uttar Pradesh CEO’s account cited another apparent error, “Ram ne Sharma ko Maara,” and said computers and software were not casteist. It then added that officials should be thankful the mistaken entry did not say Ram had hit a member of a minority community, or they could face accusations of communalism as well as casteism. The office later said the post’s tone and language were inconsistent with the communication expected from an official account and apologized to people offended...