50,000 Forms Filed Seeking Deletion of Votes

Hyderabad:Amid nearly 93 lakh voters listed with logical discrepancies or placed in the absent, shifted, dead and duplicate (ASDD) list, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has received close to 50,000 Form-7 applications seeking deletion of names or raising objections to entries in the draft electoral rolls.

Political parties have asked election officials to provide details of the Form-7 applications through Form 10, which is the consolidated list of objections and deletion requests received through Form 7.

The Congress, which is independently re-verifying the ASDD list, is also examining inconsistencies in Form-7 applications during an ongoing door-to-door exercise by its Booth Level Agents (BLAs) across all Assembly constituencies.

During a recent meeting with representatives of political parties at the GHMC office, election officials provided the total number of applications but did not share Assembly constituency-wise consolidated details.

“We have urged the officials to provide Form 9 (consolidated list of new voter applications through Form 6s), Form 10 (consolidated list of Form 7 applications) and Form 11 (consolidated list of those seeking corrections under Form 8), at Assembly constituency level. We hope that the official machinery will expedite this work,” said a party representative who attended the meeting chaired by DEO (GHMC commissioner) earlier this week.

The Congress has witnessed massive voter deletions through Form-7 during the earlier two SIR phases in several states. As a result, the Congress leaders in Telangana have kept a close watch over the developments in the ongoing phase of ‘claims and objections’ which will continue till September 16.

“We believe they have a strategy even for Telangana and would misuse the provision of Form-7 (for deletions). We are keeping tabs and building pressure on poll officials to share all the minute details, if someone has submitted Form-7, be it online against a voter,” the Congress leader explained.

Election Commission of India allows booth-level agents (BLAs) of political parties to file claims and objections (Form 7) against names featured in the draft electoral roll.

Each BLA may submit 50 forms per day

This includes 20 each for Form 6 (new voter) and Form 7 (claims and objections), and Form 10 under Form 8 (corrections, shifting of residence).

Claims can be verified not only by the ECI. Only BLAs from rival parties have the provision to challenge.

Out of over 49,000 BLAs across Telangana, 25,160 of them are registered with the ECI.

Congress has 3,601 BLAs, BJP 3,044, BRS 2,212, AIMIM 2,519. TD has six BLAs, CPM nine, BSP seven. Parties such as APP, YSRC and NPP, registered in Telangana, have zero BLAs.