Nine residents of Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur town climbed a 60ft-high water tank on Wednesday afternoon and threatened to jump to death if their names, which they said had been deleted from the electoral roll as they were critical of the BJP, were not reinstated immediately.

They alleged that the names of over 1,000 residents of Kheda Mohalla in Nigoha had been deleted from the roll because they were not BJP voters. About 50 stood on the ground chanting anti-government slogans.

Mohammad Waseem, one of the protesters on the water tank, told reporters later: “It is a conspiracy by the BJP to remove the names of its critics. We climbed the tank at 11am and came down at 2pm when a government official arrived and assured us that our names would be put on the electoral roll within a week.”

Civic elections are due in December.

Prem Pal, another resident, said his name too was missing from the roll.

“There is something grossly wrong with the district-level election commission officials,” he said.

Rashi Krishna, the sub-divisional magistrate of the area, said: “We are looking into the lapses and will resolve them soon.”

Brajesh Singh, the local inspector-in-charge, said: “The residents have agreed to wait for a week. The officers have assured them that the list will be revised.”