NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer Navdeep Rinwa on Monday responded to allegations of caste bias over an erroneous voter slip, saying that computers and software are not casteist.This comes after AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh questioned Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over an erroneous entry in a voter slip where "Ramhit Yadav" became "Ram ne Yadav ko Maara".In a post on X in Hindi, Singh said, "Gyanesh Kumar ji, why did Ram hit only a Yadav? Why did Ram not hit any Singh, Pathak, Asthana, Sharma, Rai or Bisht? Is your computer casteist? Are you running the agenda of any political party?"In a sarcastic reply to Singh, Rinwa said that had the entry read Ram hit a minority (alpasankhyak), the authorities would have been accused of communalism too."A strange name, 'Ram ne Sharma ko Maara', is also present in the voter list of the recent legislative council elections. Computers/software are not casteist," the UP CEO said."We accept that an error was made, but fortunately, even while making the error, no caste discrimination took place. Thank God that Ram did not hit a minority. Otherwise, besides being accused of casteism, we would have also faced allegations of communalism," he added.The CEO's office also shared a voter slip from the recently held graduate constituency legislative council elections. The slip listed the voter's name as Ravi Sharma, while his father's name appeared as "Ram ne Sharma ko Maara".The exchange comes days after instances of erroneous entries in electoral records were flagged, raising questions over the computer software used to prepare voter lists.Later, Rinwa, in a post on X, said some "bizarre-looking names" had appeared in the voter list during the recently held legislative council elections."The reasons behind such mistakes are being looked into and appropriate action is being taken to prevent recurrence," the CEO said.He said "some forged voter slips" had gone viral on social media and were being displayed or circulated by several established media outlets and prominent individuals. "The person responsible for the forgery will be dealt with as per law," Rinwa added.Join conversationShare your thoughts in the commentsBe respectful · TOI community guidelinesLast week, Rinwa had explained that the software was designed to transliterate names entered in English into Hindi.However, in some cases, instead of transliterating names, it translated the words, resulting in incorrect entries. For instance, if "Ramhit Yadav" was mistakenly typed as "Ram Hit Yadav", the software translated it into Hindi as "Ram ne Yadav ko Maara" (Ram hit Yadav).He said the errors could have been corrected using the editing feature, but some remained in the final list.Another instance, in which "B.Com" was entered in place of the father's name in the electoral roll for the legislative council polls, appeared to be a case of human error or negligence, the CEO had said.How significant do you think caste biases are in the context of the recent voter slip controversy?Very significantSomewhat significantNot significant at all3k+ users shared opinion today5k+ users already voted today3k+ users shared opinion todayShare OpinionPolling for 11 seats in the Uttar Pradesh legislative council was held on October 23, and counting of votes will take place on October 27.Get the latest India News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.