A Bharatiya Janata Party booth-level agent has been booked allegedly for misusing Form 7, seeking deletion of 30 Muslim voters from the Mursheerabad Assembly constituency, Hyderabad, during the special intensive revision. According to the complaint and preliminary verification, all the 30 voters are from the Muslim community. The case against it was registered on October 6 on a complaint by Musheerabad Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) T Praveen Kumar Reddy. The complaint alleged that the forms submitted were printed with the names of the voters concerned, the Hindu reported.
According to the complaint, Balachander, on September 28, brought as many as 30 digitally preprinted Form 7 applications to Polling Station No. 210, seeking deletion of voters who are allegedly unconnected to him. The booth level officer and supervisor, however, as per the reports, refused to accept the bulk forms. Following this, Balachander allegedly left the documents at the polling station and left the premises. Form 7 allows voters to raise objections to the inclusion of a name or request its deletion from the electoral roll.
“Therefore, the Form 7s in question cannot be accepted and are liable for rejection,” the FIR reportedly said.
Balachander faces charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for allegedly providing false information to a public servant and cheating. Provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, have also been included in the FIR.
“Personal field verification” by electoral officials on October 1 showed that the 30 persons whose names were flagged for deletions were residents of Hyderabad’s Musheerabad, The Indian Express quoted the FIR.
“Therefore, the form-7s in question cannot be accepted and (are) liable for rejection,” the FIR added.
The controversy has also extended to the Bahadurpura and Goshamahal constituencies in Hyderabad, where similar pre-printed Form 7 applications were reportedly submitted. In Goshamahal, a Booth Level Officer (BLO) reportedly refused to accept a bulk submission after noticing procedural irregularities.
Following this, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi said, “A BLA cannot submit more than ten forms. It seems they do not know the rules. They should know the rule that a BLA from one party cannot submit more than ten forms. After the forms are submitted, there is a process for the BLO to conduct an inquiry. You tell us, I am challenging you. If they do not understand, then I am challenging them: at Booth No. 28 in the Goshamahal Assembly Constituency, there are 122 names, and at Polling Booth No. 173, there are 30 names.”
“How can this happen? How can one person submit 122 names by bringing pre-printed forms? We should salute the BLO for not accepting them. Our party’s BLA checked and verified them…” he added.Hyderabad BJP booth agent booked over alleged attempt to delete names of 30 Muslim voters using Form 7
