Hyderabad: Hyderabad District Congress Committee president Syed Khalid Saifullah on Saturday alleged that an organised BJP-linked Form-7 network is using computer-generated applications to target Muslim voters for deletion from electoral rolls. He made the claim as the Congress stepped up its agitation in Hyderabad against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Saifullah spoke during a protest march from Madina Market to Charminar. Telangana Government Advisor and senior Congress leader V. Hanumantha Rao led the march. More than 200 Congress workers took part. They raised slogans against the Election Commission and demanded an investigation into alleged irregularities in the electoral roll revision process.
Saifullah alleged that the applications target entire Muslim families in constituencies including Musheerabad and Goshamahal. He said some places seek to delete every voter in a single house. “The real question is who generated these forms and from where they are coming,” he said.
Saifullah alleges forms travel from Delhi to booth level
He alleged that nobody prepared the applications individually. Computers generate them, he said, and the forms travel from Delhi to Telangana. He claimed they first reach the BJP State office. From there, he alleged, they go to Assembly-level functionaries and then to booth-level workers, who submit them. He demanded an investigation into this chain.
Saifullah accused the BJP of using the voter revision exercise to deepen communal divisions at the local level. He alleged that Hindu and Muslim families who have lived as neighbours for 15 years now face booth-level political workers filing objections against voters from the other community. He said this breeds hatred at the booth level.
The Hyderabad DCC chief said the probe into alleged wrongful Form-7 applications could not stop with the person who physically submitted a form. He referred to an FIR against a Booth Level Agent in Telangana. He argued that investigators should trace what he described as the entire chain behind the computer-generated applications.
Saifullah cites counterfeit currency to demand wider probe
Saifullah used the example of counterfeit currency to press his demand. If police find a fake note with a person, they do not arrest only the holder, he said. They look into where it came from, who distributed it and where it was printed. “The same principle must apply here,” he said. Police must establish who generated and supplied a computer-generated Form-7 found at the booth level, and which office it passed through, he added.
He demanded that the police examine BJP offices as part of the investigation. He alleged that thousands of such applications sit there. Prosecuting only an individual Booth Level Agent or local functionary would not expose what he claimed was a much larger political operation, he said. “The person holding the form is only the last point in the chain,” he said.
Saifullah also targeted the BJP leadership. He alleged that Telangana BJP president N. Ramchander Rao had failed to give clear answers when questioned on the issue. He said the Congress will not stay silent while voters face removal through computer-generated applications.
He further claimed that similar computer-generated Form-7 formats had surfaced in Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Karnataka. The similarity raises serious questions about whether a common system generates the applications, he said, and he demanded a wider probe. He said the issue is not local or isolated.
Congress vows to intensify its agitation
Congress leaders at the march said the controversy had gone beyond routine objections and corrections in electoral rolls. They said it had become a question of the credibility of the revision process itself. They accused the Election Commission of failing to address opposition concerns over alleged wrongful deletions and misuse of Form-7 applications.
Hanumantha Rao said the Congress would continue its agitation against any attempt to deprive eligible citizens of their voting rights. Party workers demanded transparency in the handling of voter deletion requests. Congress leaders said minorities, the poor, migrants and other vulnerable groups could suffer disproportionately if officials process deletion applications without adequate scrutiny.
Saifullah said the Congress would take the campaign beyond street protests. It would pursue the issue before election authorities, law-enforcement agencies and, where necessary, through legal channels, he said. “This is about the right of every eligible citizen to remain on the electoral roll and exercise the right to vote,” he said.
He warned that the Congress would intensify its agitation if no one investigates the alleged source of the computer-generated Form-7 applications. “Congress will fight this from the booth level to the highest constitutional forums,” Saifullah said.
