ECI orders action over bogus Form 7s in T’gana, says CEO

The Election Commission of India on Monday asked the Telangana state government authorities concerned to “take appropriate action” against individuals who submitted Form 7s to falsely delete eligible voters from the electoral rolls during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.

Telangana chief electoral officer C Sudershan Reddy issued a memo to this effect to the commissioner of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, the Hyderabad district election officer, and all collectors and DEOs of districts across the state.

“It has come to the notice of this office that there have been instances of filing bulk applications in Form 7 before the electoral registration officers and it is also alleged that such forms are not genuine,” Reddy said in the memo.

He asked the officials concerned to issue necessary instructions that the EROs shall take action against the applicants, who have made a knowingly false statement or declaration in writing in Form-6, 6A, 7 & 8, as per the provisions of Section 31 of the Representation of People Act, 1950 .

“Such action shall be preceded by an inquiry under Rule 20 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960,” the memo said.

Earlier in the day, the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee’s election commission coordination committee headed by Pulipati Rajesh Kumar submitted a formal complaint to Hyderabad police commissioner V C Sajjannar against alleged misuse of Form 7 through pre-printed bulk applications by some individuals.

Referring to one such instance in Musheerabad assembly constituency, Kumar brought to the notice of the police commissioner that a booth-level agent belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party submitted Form-7 applications seeking deletion of Congress BLA and 30 members of his family from the voters’ list.

“The said applications were allegedly pre- printed and prepared in advance, raising grave concerns about whether the persons shown as applicants had actually initiated, authorised, signed or consented to such applications,” he said.

Similar types of pre-filled Form-7 applications were reportedly found in other places like Bahadurpura and Goshamahal, the PCC leader said.

PCC spokesman Syed Nizamuddin demanded immediate seizure of all pre-printed and bulk-prepared voter deletion applications across Hyderabad. He wondered how electoral-roll data was accessed, organised household-wise, printed in bulk and converted into ready-to-sign Form 7 applications.

He also demanded that fresh bulk Form 7 applications should not be accepted until the authorities established and recorded their chain of custody. He also sought a field-by-field comparison between the disputed printed Form 7 applications and the official electoral-roll export.