Congress asks ECI to probe and halt misuse of Form-7s

New Delhi: All India Congress Committee (AICC) on Thursday wrote to the chief election commissioner and the two election commissioners, alleging misuse of Form-7s by BJP workers to wrongly delete eligible voters from the electoral list, through a "centralised system" and by "using and relying on the Election Commission's own document", during the ongoing special intensive revision of electoral rolls in 12 states and Union Territories.

The Opposition party demanded urgent intervention and probe by the Election Commission of India to halt "illegal deletions", while claiming that socially backward and marginalised sections were being specially targeted.

Form-7 is meant for individuals to make legitimate objections to the inclusion of a name in the electoral rolls or to make legitimate requests for deletion of an existing name due to the death of the person.


In a letter to ECI, AICC general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal expressed Congress' concerns related to "eligible voters being wrongfully deleted" during the claim and objection phase of the SIR of electoral rolls.

"What is worrying and hence requires immediate intervention of the commission is the fact that media reports and party workers have identified individuals and members belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and found them to be using and relying on the Election Commission's own document, i.e., Form-7, to wrongfully delete voters from the final electoral roll," Venugopal wrote.

He said such unchecked actions "will not only embolden BJP in their efforts to wrongfully gain electoral advantage but will also lead to the disenfranchisement of lakhs of voters, especially those belonging to the backward, marginalised communities, who as per the media reports have been made the target of these deletions and removals through Form-7s".

Venugopal said complaints from Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam and Kerala indicated a pattern. "First, there is generation of bulk, pre-printed objection forms in the Form-7... allegedly through a centralised system. Second, such forms are then used to raise objections en masse against targeted categories... Third, these pre-printed Form-7 applications are then handed over to booth level officers across multiple assembly constituencies in different states through a well-organised mechanism."

Raising specific demands, Venugopal called for instituting strict vigilance and real-time supervision over the voter deletion process, enforcing uniform, stringent guidelines regulating the issuance and scrutiny of Form-7s applications, initiating an investigation into the illegal voter deletion mechanism and making public disaggregated data relating to Form-7 applications for all states and Union Territories undergoing SIR.