Hyderabad: Advisor to the Telangana Government Mohammed Ali Shabbir has urged Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy to order stringent action, including FIRs, against alleged Form 7 misuse. He says applicants are using the form to seek deletion of genuine voters during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Shabbir Ali made the appeal in a letter to the Chief Minister.
In the letter, Shabbir Ali raised concern over reports of bulk Form 7 filings, including through pre-printed forms. The applications seek deletion of eligible electors on grounds such as death, shifting of residence or duplicate enrolment. He said minority voters fear that someone could target their names without their knowledge.
Shabbir Ali cited a TPCC complaint about 30 Form 7 applications at Polling Booth No. 210 in Musheerabad. The complaint alleges that someone filed them in the name of BJP booth-level agent S.V. Balachander alias Balu. They seek deletion of Congress booth-level agent Mohammad Baba Sharfuddin, his family members and another household in Chikkadapally.
The applications cite death, shifting or duplicate enrolment. The affected families maintain that they still live at the same addresses and hold only one voter card each. According to the letter, the voter details are pre-printed while the applicant’s name is handwritten. The BJP agent allegedly told Sharfuddin that the forms came from the party office. Verification later found that the families are enrolled only in the constituency concerned, and their names remain on the rolls.
The Advisor also referred to another Form 7 sheet from a polling station in Aliyabad in Bahadurpura. It allegedly carried the printed particulars of a Muslim voter, but the objector’s column stayed blank. Shabbir Ali noted that the Chief Electoral Officer has reported 28,753 Form 7 applications across Telangana, including around 5,000 in Hyderabad.
Form 7 misuse: CEO assurance and Karnataka FIRs
The CEO assured that officials would enquire into bulk applications and dispose of them through speaking orders. The CEO also said that merely filing a Form 7 would not automatically delete a voter’s name. Shabbir Ali welcomed the assurance but said authorities should back it with penal action wherever they establish false declarations.
He pointed to Karnataka, where FIRs followed complaints by affected electors at Narasimharaja in Mysuru, Bhalki in Bidar and Market police station in Belagavi. The Election Commission also ordered an inquiry into the complaints. He urged the Telangana Government to take the same stringent approach, so that allegedly false applications do not pass as routine electoral objections.
Shabbir Ali proposed that the Director General of Police facilitate FIRs based on complaints from affected voters of Booth No. 210 in Musheerabad. The same would apply to any elector who produces a pre-printed Form 7 or an application with blank objector details.
He also sought preservation of the original applications, including signatures, handwriting, dates and supporting documents, before the claims window closes on October 7. He said officials should formally record the Booth Level Officer’s statement. The Advisor further asked that the Chief Electoral Officer refer cases involving allegedly false declarations for action under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, wherever applicable.
Shabbir Ali also suggested that authorities hold no hearing on a Form 7 with pre-printed voter particulars or an unnamed objector. They should first identify the printer and supplier and establish the consent of the person shown as the applicant. He sought publication of a booth-wise list of Form 7 applications before the claims window closes. The list should name each objector, give the number of forms that person filed and state the grounds cited for deletion.
“The Congress Government has assured the people that no genuine elector will be removed on a political objection. Stringent action in these cases will give that assurance its force,” Shabbir Ali said in the letter.
