Allegations have emerged in Gujarat of mass submissions of Form 7 applications seeking the deletion of names from electoral rolls. Amid the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercice, several voters have claimed that their names, phone, and Elector’s Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers were misused, and signatures forged to file false claims. In some cases, voters alleged they were asked to sign hundreds of Form 7 applications and were told the forms were for inclusion of names, not deletion.
Opposition parties, including the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), have alleged that leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party orchestrated the exercise, targeting Opposition and minority strongholds through the mass submission of pre-typed forms. They claim that while the objectors’ names and signatures appeared handwritten, the applications were filed in bulk, potentially leading to the deletion of lakhs of names across the State.
They further alleged that many of the mobile numbers listed on the forms did not belong to the objectors, and the numbers belonged to unrelated people, mostly from other States. The BJP, however, denied the allegations, asserting that the SIR exercise was a transparent process and that neither the party nor the government had any role in filing the applications.
