A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) booth-level agent allegedly attempted to delete over 75,000 voters from an electoral roll in Ballari City Assembly constituency using Form 7 during the special intensive revision exercise. The Hindu reported that of the 4,000 applications filed to delete voters from Karnataka’s electoral rolls, the majority targeted Muslims.
In Karnataka, a BJP booth-level agent allegedly sought the deletion of more than 75,000 voters from the electoral roll of Ballari City Assembly constituency using Form 7 during the special intensive revision exercise, according to a report by The Hindu. This is not a typo; the actual number of voters targeted was over 75,000.
On Tuesday, The Hindu reported that of the 4,000 applications filed to delete voters from Karnataka’s electoral rolls, the majority targeted Muslims. This finding is based on data from Form 10, which consolidates details of Form 7 applications.
Form 7 is used to object to the inclusion of a name or seek the deletion of an existing name from the electoral roll. A first information report (FIR) has been registered against the booth-level agent, T Srinivas Mothkur, for allegedly misusing the form.
Political parties appoint booth level agents for specific polling station areas to complement the Election Commission’s booth level officers during the preparation and revision of electoral rolls. This is a standard practice.
This is the sixth FIR registered in Karnataka in connection with the alleged misuse of Form 7. Three of the five other cases have named BJP members as the accused, The Hindu reported.
On September 21, Mothkur wrote to the Ballari City Corporation saying several booth-level officers had refused to accept his Form 7 applications. He then submitted the remaining applications directly to the electoral registration officer.
The same day, the election authorities of the Ballari City Corporation responded that Mothkur’s claims that the voters were registered elsewhere, absent or had permanently shifted were not supported by documents or other information, The Hindu reported.
The electoral registration officer also said that booth-level agents could not submit more than 10 applications to a booth-level officer in a day. If an agent submitted more than 30 applications during the claims and objections period, the electoral registration officer or assistant electoral registration officer had to cross-verify them. Agents were also required to submit a declaration stating that they had verified the details in the applications and found them to be correct.
On September 22, Mothkur wrote to the election authorities saying that he was ready to submit objections against 7,561 voters and enclosed the list of names. However, his request was rejected once more, stating that the registration of voters cannot be verified on the basis of his complaint.
Following this, Congress booth-level agent Goutham S filed a complaint against Mothkur. He also alleged that a majority of the voters whose names Mothkur sought to remove belonged to a minority community.
Source:
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