Fresh cases of alleged bulk Form-7 applications seeking the deletion of Muslim voters from Karnataka’s electoral rolls have emerged in Dakshina Kannada, while the Chief Electoral Officer’s office has said forms must be supported by evidence before any deletion is considered.
According to The Indian Express, 279 Form-7 applications were filed across 16 polling stations in the Belthangady constituency, including 82 applications in Ujire seeking the removal of Muslim voters’ names from the final electoral roll after the Special Intensive Revision exercise. The figures were cited by Rakshith Shivaram, who unsuccessfully contested the constituency on a Congress ticket in 2023.
Ahmed Shah, a resident of Ujire, told the newspaper that he and his family discovered the applications against their names after a booth-level officer sought additional documents. Shah said the forms were pre-printed and carried the family members’ Electoral Photo Identity Card numbers, despite their having submitted enumeration forms and regularly voted in previous elections.
Mohammed Luqman, another voter whose name was flagged, said the booth-level officer initially asked affected voters to submit verification documents. He later informed them that the documents were not required because the Chief Electoral Officer had instructed electoral registration officers not to accept such applications without supporting evidence. Shah and other affected voters said they planned to approach the police and file a complaint.
The office of Chief Electoral Officer V Anbukumar said in a press release that 84,900 Form-7 applications had been submitted to booth-level officers across 34 electoral districts in Karnataka. Form-7 is used to object to or seek the deletion of a name from an electoral roll. The release said no forms had been received for objections to proposed inclusions, and indicated that the bulk applications had not been accepted.
Bidar recorded the highest number of Form-7 submissions at 5,915, followed by Shivamogga with 5,760 and Dakshina Kannada with 4,746. Officials in the Chief Electoral Officer’s office said the statewide figures included applications different from the specific bulk submissions being investigated. Anbukumar said the details of the bulk applications were still being compiled.
The issue intensified after Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and members of his Cabinet protested outside the Chief Electoral Officer’s office. The ruling Congress has accused BJP and Janata Dal (Secular) workers of submitting the pre-printed forms, although the report does not establish the allegation independently. Shivakumar said the Chief Electoral Officer had instructed election officials to approve only applications concerning deaths or duplicate entries, with documentary requirements for both categories.
For death-related deletions, a death certificate must be uploaded, according to the instruction read out by Shivakumar. For alleged duplicate entries, the second EPIC number must be provided and recorded in the remarks of the Electoral Registration Officer. The CEO office’s ongoing compilation of bulk submissions is the next official step in determining the scale and disposition of the complaints.