Daylight robbery of voting rights?

On 29 January, Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal drew the Election Commission of India’s attention to the “massive misuse of Form 7 by the BJP” to eliminate voters suspected of supporting the Opposition.

In his letter, Venugopal calls the misuse extensive and systematic, adding that the BJP appears to have asked its workers to submit objections in bulk, particularly in poll-bound states. A key element of the centralised fraud, he says, is to ensure that notices informing legitimate voters of the objections never reach them.

Reports from Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Assam, Kerala, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh do indicate a similar pattern. The bulk-printed Form 7s have some remarkable common features: 1. the names to be deleted are pre-printed (indicating a mass operation with access to the voter database) and 2. the names of objector-applicants are missing and yet the forms carry the applicant’s signature at the bottom.

When the ECI quietly altered the rules governing Form 7 in 2023, nobody seemed to notice. Form 7 allows a voter to challenge the inclusion of another individual in the electoral rolls and request their removal. Earlier, only neighbours or voters registered at the same polling station were eligible to submit Form 7; the new rule allows any voter in the same assembly constituency to do so. Another big change is to allow an unlimited number of submissions per applicant.

According to an update posted on the official X handle of the chief electoral officer, Uttar Pradesh (@ceoup) on 11 February, 1.1 lakh Form 7 applications have been received in Uttar Pradesh. The ECI itself has not put out any such figures on X or its website for UP or the remaining states and UTs featuring in this round of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

As noted above, the submitted Form 7s show a disturbing pattern across the states: the name, address and EPIC number of voter names to be deleted are printed on the forms.

The name of the (objector)-applicant — a field that appears right on top of the form — was blank in all instances this reporter found with the BLOs (booth-level officers) he was in touch with. Even EPIC numbers, not a mandatory field, are printed — not hand-written — on these forms, indicating an operation involving access to the ECI’s database.

Sharafat Hussain, a supplier of building materials in Amethi’s Jagdishpur recalls that all 19 members of his extended family figured in the SIR draft list. When BLO Amar Bahadur informed him that Form 7 applications had been received for the deletion of 16 names, he was taken aback. The Samajwadi Party has accused Savitri Devi, a BJP mandal president in Fatehpur district, of filing 72 objections. Attempts by National Herald to reach Savitri Devi proved futile.

Even the 2023 manual of the ECI — featuring amended Form 7 rules — restricts bulk submission of Form 7 applications. Even a booth level agent (BLA) can file only up to 10 forms a day. If a BLA submits more than 30 applications while revision of rolls is ongoing, the ERO and AERO are required to personally verify all applications.

A Newslaundry investigation in Gujarat’s Somnath constituency revealed that in January 2026, 269 objectors submitted pre-filled forms in bulk to delete 15,663 voters. Voters’ details were printed in English while objectors’ details were handwritten in Gujarati.

Each of the 269 objectors were found to have submitted 50 or more Form 7 applications. Among the objectors were Manjulaben Suyani, the Somnath BJP women’s wing president, and 29 BJP councillors from the towns of Veraval and Patan. At least six denied having signed the forms.

A similar investigation by Quint in February 2026 revealed that even a month after thousands of Form 7 applications were filed to delete the names of Muslim voters in Alwar, Rajasthan, there was no move to check where the forms were printed, filled, signed and whether the signatures were fake or not.

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Even as reports surface on the misuse of Form 7, the deadline for filing objections to the draft voter list in Uttar Pradesh has been extended to 6 March.

At booth number 126 in Amethi’s Jagdishpur district, BLO Amar Bahadur received 126 forms for deleting the names of 167 voters, all Muslims. Ramkumar, tasked with supervising eight polling booths (122 to 129) claims he got the forms from Tej Bahadur, the election office in-charge.

National Herald accessed dozens of pre-filled forms. All bear the signature of the objectors but not their names nor other mandatory details (address, name of relative, mobile number). Voter details, however, are typed/printed in capital letters. Muslims all, they were from Barsanda village in Musafirkhana tehsil.

Barsanda village head Sanjida Bano questioned four villagers in connection with their role in deletion of names. One of them, Pawan Kumar, admitted signing many forms; the other three denied any involvement. Pawan, a BJP worker, also admitted that because there so were many forms, he even got his daughter to sign some.

Many more incidents have been reported on social media. In a clip shared by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, a party leader in Sant Kabir Nagar district can be seen talking to someone who says that 126 forms were given to him by Lakshmi Shankar Shukla who received them from MLA Anil Tiwari.

In Siddharthnagar district, BLO Pujari Prasad Yadav admitted that Dharmendra Maurya visited him with 86 forms for deletions — handed over by the tehsil office to be submitted to the BLO. Yadav found all voters to be genuine and present, and said he planned to mention in his report.

Ashwini Kumar, an assistant teacher in a primary school working as a BLO in Etawah, claimed he was assaulted by Dhruv Katheria and Uday Pratap when he used took photos of the forms they wanted him to accept. Subhadra Maurya, a BLO from Amethi, said her husband was abused and assaulted when she refused to delete the names of Muslim voters.

Newslaundry reached out to former election commissioners for their comments. “How can Form 7 be pre-filled?” asked Ashok Lavasa. “It’s happening around the country… We are nearing the collapse of democracy,” fumed former CEC S.Y. Quraishi.