India
oi-Gaurav Sharma
An inquiry has been ordered in Jharkhand’s Godda district after booth-level agents of a political party filed several Form-7 applications requesting to delete the names of voters from electoral rolls, officials said on Wednesday.
The row erupted when Booth Level Agents (BLA-2) approached Booth Level Officers (BLO) at various polling booths with applications seeking deletion of voters from electoral rolls on grounds of “missing” and “shifted”.
An inquiry was ordered in Jharkhand’s Godda district after allegations surfaced that BJP booth agents filed numerous Form-7 applications to delete voters, potentially targeting Muslims during the Election Commission’s electoral roll revision process.
According to The Indian Express, the allegations concern BJP booth-level agents who are accused of filing applications in bulk to delete names of Muslim voters. The controversy broke out in Godda district after BJP booth-level agent Sanjeev Kumar of Maheshtikri (Booth-9) said he had filed 25 registration forms with the BLO, asking for deletion of voters.
Meanwhile, BLO Anisha Bano protested against this move saying that the BLA had submitted forms with names of residents already living in the jurisdiction for long and who were also present in the 2003 voter list, after which she returned the forms.
The tussle began after Kumar alleged that villagers had gathered in numbers outside his house and threatened him. Kumar added that he had merely followed the directions given by the party and had no role in preparing the application forms.
According to another report, a similar episode occurred in Puchua Kitta (Booth-48) when BLO Md Mukher was approached by a BLA-2 requesting him to sign on the receipt of 15 Form-7 applications. “He (BLA-2) informed me that the applications were given to him by the party and that he had no idea about their contents. I told him that Form-7 was meant for deletion of names from voter lists,” said Mukher.
The mukhiya of Vatra panchayat alleged that application forms had been distributed in four booths- Maheshetkiri, Puchua Kitta, Lochni and Baghakol by BJP booth-level agents.
Basantrai Block Development Officer and Electoral Registration Officer Sriman Marandi has initiated an inquiry into the complaints.
“Any person can object. I have asked the BLOs to accept the forms as objections. Voters’ names cannot be deleted except in special cases,” said Marandi.
The preliminary probe conducted at the Maheshtikri polling booth revealed that of the 25 voters whose names were sought to be deleted, 24 had been residing in the jurisdiction for long. The reason cited for the deletion of the one voter was that he was a migrant worker staying away from the village for two months.
Jharkhand Chief Electoral Officer K. Ravi Kumar has asked the district election officer to submit a report on this development.
“I must emphasize that BLAs can file Form-7 applications for deletion of voters’ names in bulk. However, the BLAs are required to submit a declaration that the information provided in the applications is true to the best of their knowledge. We are yet to ascertain if the declaration was submitted by the BLAs,” said Kumar.
The controversy comes in the backdrop of Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Jharkhand.
The Commission has released the draft electoral rolls on Wednesday after deleting over 43.61 lakh names during the process.
According to the latest data, Jharkhand’s voter list has shrunk from 26.4 lakh to 22.1 lakh after the SIR process.
The tentative voter turnout is estimated at 11.2 crore male, 10.8 crore female and 260 third-gender voters in Jharkhand’s voter list.
The enumeration process was completed between June 30 and July 29 during which the Booth Level Officers have conducted door-to-door survey, distributing, collecting and cross-verifying the voter forms.
Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal has condemned the SIR as “politics of exclusion” and accused BJP of targeting Muslim voters.
“The Election Commission is indulging in a ‘politics of exclusion’ by conducting the SIR. The BJP is deliberately targeting Muslim voters by misusing Form-7 to delete their names from voter lists,” said Kapil Sibal.
The Election Commission has announced extension of the deadline for objections to the draft electoral roll till September 15. The final list of voters is now expected to be released on October 19, compared to the original schedule of October 7.
