Election Commission not looking into BJP’s role in bulk submission of Form 7

• Reports allege BJP workers in Karnataka received pre-printed Form 7s and submitted voter-deletion requests, including forms citing voters as “Absent”

• Similar reports of bulk, pre-filled Form 7 filings have emerged from Odisha, Uttarakhand and West Bengal, prompting questions over the Election Commission’s procedures

• Karnataka Congress demands a criminal inquiry into bulk filings, while calls grow for the ECI to clarify allegations of political involvement in the process

A reporter from the Kannada daily Vartha Bharathi released an audio recording of a conversation with a couple in the Madikeri Assembly constituency. Both identified themselves as BJP workers and confirmed that they had each submitted 10 forms seeking the deletion of voters’ names. When asked whether the voters had actually stopped residing in the village, they replied in the negative. They said the forms were submitted because there were doubts that the voters had two voter IDs. However, the forms stated that the voters’ names should be deleted from the electoral roll because they were “Absent”.

The names, moreover, were pre-printed rather than handwritten. Asked where they had obtained the printed forms, they replied, “This was given to us by our party, from the Somwarpet office.” The entire conversation was translated into English and shared on X by AltNews co-founder and fact-checker Mohammad Zubair.

Similar reports have emerged from Odisha, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. Thousands of pre-filled and pre-printed forms seeking voter deletions have reportedly been submitted in several states, with only the names of the ‘objectors’ and their EPIC numbers left blank to be filled in by hand.

The process was facilitated by the Election Commission which modified earlier rules that restricted ‘objectors’ to the same booth as the voters; the ECI also waived the restriction on the number of forms which each objector could file. The commission is yet to explain why unlimited number of forms were allowed to be filed by BJP’s Booth Level Agents and many in the name of genuine voters who, however, were ignorant that their names were being misused.

Karnataka home minister Priyank Kharge claimed in a post on X, “In over 70 per cent booths of Karnataka, we have found BJP leaders have been collecting Form 7 without any identification. Pre-printed forms with names, EPIC nos. and booth details (of voters to be deleted) are being given to BJP leaders to delete names of voters.”

Rishita Khanna reporting for The Hindu also wrote about two men claiming to represent Belagavi City Corporation tried to persuade BLOs to sign pre-filled forms for deletion. When a few BLOs demurred, the men called someone who pretended to be the ERO and ordered the BLOs to sign.

The ERO, when contacted, denied having spoken to the BLOs and said his name was misused without his knowledge and authorisation. The same report referred to deletion requests affecting Muslim voters in Balki constituency even after the deadline for objection had expired on 23 September. The Form-10 report shows 1,131 applications were received between 24 and 29 September, of which 1,123 were bulk filings.

Karnataka Congress on 1 October called for scrapping the SIR in Karnataka and a criminal inquiry into bulk filings of Form 7. The paty demanded that FIRs be lodged against those who generated, filed or coordinated fraudulent Form 7s. “Trace the individuals and political actors behind the filings. Restore every eligible voter wrongly targeted or deleted,” the party said in a statement.

While it took the chief minister D.K. Shivakumar, Priyank Kharge and other members of the cabinet to barge into the CEO’s office for the CEO to reluctantly issue a statement that EROs should take action against illegal use of Form 7, there is no suggestion of an inquiry into the role of the BJP and its agents.

In view of the mounting evidence, the least the Election Commission can do is to break its silence and clarify its position. If internal inquiries revealed no BJP links, it should say so and put doubts at rest.