New Delhi: A software glitch, a cheeky response, and now an apology—the past few days have kept the X account of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Uttar Pradesh at the centre of controversy.
On Monday, when leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) questioned whether its software used in the Member of Legislative Council elections was casteist for translating the name ‘Ram hit Yadav’ to ‘Ram ne Yadav ko Mara’, the UP CEO office pointed out that another voter’s father’s name was also changed to ‘Ram ne Sharma ko Mara’.
“We must also thank God that Ram did not kill any minority. Otherwise, in addition to being casteist, there would also be an accusation of being communal,” the CEO office added, leading to several users registering their objection to the language used by the electoral authority.Acknowledging its slip up, the CEO office put up an apology on X on Tuesday.
“The language level, tone, and sharp nature of the comments in the quoted post of this handle are not in line with the nature of communication expected from this official handle,” the CEO office conceded. “The genuine outrage generated by the comments in the post has been duly noted. We sincerely apologize to those who are surprised and upset by this. From now on, our communication will be polite and formal.”
The tone and tenor and the acerbic nature of the comments in the quoted post of this handle is not in line with the nature of communication expected from this official handle. The genuine outrage generated by the comments in the post has been well noted. We offer our sincere… https://t.co/bREEam4H9d
— CEO Uttar Pradesh (@ceoup) October 27, 2026
The controversy broke out when the UP CEO office’s X account admitted last week that out of over 14.81 lakh voter entries registered online, there were 158 entries where the voter’s names or their relatives appeared ‘bizarre’.
It said that these names were supposed to be transliterated from English to Hindi, but they were instead translated. It then provided ‘Ram hit Yadav’ as an example. “For example, if a voter’s name is Ram hit Yadav, and by mistake, instead of typing Ram hit Yadav in English, Ram hit Yadav was typed, then the software translated it as ‘Ram ne Yadav ko maara’ (Ram hit Yadav).”
AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh then shared a video of AAP UP Purvanchal prant adhyaksh (provincial head) Rajesh Yadav, who can be seen questioning why ‘Ram is hitting only Yadav’. He then questioned whether the computer was casteist as well.
Singh deemed it a ‘valid question’ and asked, “Why didn’t Ram kill a Singh, Pathak, Asthana, Sharma, Rai, or Bisht?”
Replying to Singh, the X account of the UP CEO office said “in the voter list for the recent Legislative Council elections, there is also a bizarre name: ‘Ram ne Sharma ko mara.’ Computers/software are not casteist. It is acceptable that we made a mistake, but fortunately, even during the mistake, there was no discrimination based on caste.”
हालिया विधान परिषद के चुनाव की मतदाता सूची में एक अजीबोगरीब नाम “राम ने शर्मा को मारा” भी है। कंप्यूटर/सॉफ्टवेयर जातिवादी नहीं है। हमारे द्वारा गलती किया जाना स्वीकार है लेकिन हमारे सौभाग्य से गलती होते समय भी जाति का भेदभाव नहीं हुआ है। भगवान का यह भी शुक्र है की राम ने किसी… https://t.co/nnVPWpH3wb pic.twitter.com/txG4odd7xP
— CEO Uttar Pradesh (@ceoup) October 25, 2026
What triggered a controversy was the post adding the word ‘communal’ in the same post. “We must also thank God that Ram did not kill any minority. Otherwise, in addition to being casteist, there would also be an accusation of being communal.”
Singh clapped back at the post by the UP CEO office, dubbing it ‘communal’ and ‘petty’. “The CEO’s language is the language of a petty, deeply communal person from Uttar Pradesh.”
Congress leader Supriya Shrinate chipped in to slam the CEO. “Anyway, you folks have no special credibility left to save. The little bit of confusion that exists—this handle is clearing it up all by itself,” she said.
In response to this post, the CEO’s account mentioned that the EC has “issued instructions to limit statements to facts only, using restrained language in every case, without unnecessary comments”.
Parineeth is an alum of ThePrint School of Journalism, currently interning with ThePrint.
(Edited by Tony Rai)