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COVER STORY OCTOBER 09, 2026 | The Indian Eye 6

voters in the Belagavi region were come increasingly important. Election
targeted through a large number of officials have stressed that a Form 7
Form 7 applications filed over three application does not automatically
days. He further alleged that Muslim, remove a name. Verification, notice
Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe to the affected voter and due process
and Other Backward Class voters are required before a deletion can be
were being targeted. completed.
The BJP and election authorities The political dispute is unlikely
have rejected the broader allegations to end with the protests announced
of systematic manipulation. Election for October. The Congress has al-
officials have stressed that the filing ready called a meeting of all AICC
of a Form 7 does not automatically in-charges and Pradesh Congress
result in deletion of a voter’s name. Committee chiefs in New Delhi on
Applications are subject to verifica- October 5 to discuss its strategy for
tion, notices and due process before a agitation over the Election Commis-
deletion is finalised. sion.
BJP leaders have also argued that That meeting could further
Form 7 is a legitimate mechanism for strengthen the Congress’s organisa-
raising objections against duplicate, In Karnataka, Chief Minister D K Shivakumar staged a dharna outside the office of the Chief tional campaign at the state and dis-
shifted or otherwise ineligible voters. trict levels.
BJP MP Jagadish Shettar said the Electoral Officer, alleging large-scale deletion of voters through misuse of Form 7 (ANI Photo) For now, SIR has succeeded
Election Commission did not have in doing something that has often
the power to simply delete genuine warned that the exercise could affect Whether that unity can be sus- proved difficult for the INDIA bloc:
votes and that action should be taken both voting rights and citizenship. tained is the bigger political question. it has brought together parties with
where names are found to be dupli- The Election Commission, how- SIR nevertheless creates a com- different political priorities around a
cated or otherwise invalid. ever, has described SIR as an elector- mon denominator because every po- single institutional issue.
This distinction is important be- al-roll revision exercise governed by litical party depends on the integrity The Delhi meeting has trans-
cause the political debate has increas- statutory procedures. The allegation of electoral rolls. A dispute over voter formed what were largely separate
ingly blurred two separate questions: that it is designed to become an NRC registration is fundamentally different state-level complaints into a coordi-
whether the electoral-roll revision is a political claim and is not estab- from a disagreement over economic nated national campaign. Karnata-
process itself is legitimate, and wheth- lished by the material provided. policy or welfare programmes: the ka has supplied allegations of bulk
er individuals may have attempted to The proposed meeting with Pres- electoral roll determines who can par- Form 7 applications; West Bengal has
misuse that process. ident Murmu is another effort to raise ticipate in the democratic process. brought concerns about voting rights
The Karnataka CEO’s directive the issue beyond partisan politics and This explains why parties with dif- and the wider conduct of elections;
suggests that authorities are treating frame it as a question concerning ferent ideological and regional priori- Maharashtra is preparing street pro-
allegations of fraudulent Form 7 fil- democratic institutions. ties can temporarily converge around tests; and the national Opposition has
ings as a matter requiring investiga- Rahul Gandhi told the meeting the issue. announced a programme of marches
tion. The Opposition, however, wants that INDIA bloc leaders were com- For the Election Commission, and institutional representations.
the issue examined as part of a broad- mitted to seeking accountability over the controversy presents a different The BJP and the Election Com-
er question about the integrity of SIR. what they described as threats to challenge: demonstrating that the re- mission reject the Opposition’s allega-
West Bengal has added another democratic institutions. Kharge’s an- vision process is transparent and that tions and defend the statutory process
powerful dimension to the controversy. nouncement of the “Save Democracy legitimate voters are protected from governing electoral-roll revision. That
Trinamool Congress chief Mama- March” gave the campaign a common wrongful deletion. contest of claims is now moving from
ta Banerjee has launched a sustained name and a nationwide organisation- The Commission’s procedural statements and press conferences to
attack on the Election Commission al framework. safeguards are therefore likely to be- protests, investigations and potential-
and Gyanesh Kumar. She has raised ly judicial scrutiny.
concerns about SIR in West Bengal The coming weeks will there-
and said her party has approached fore determine whether the SIR
the Supreme Court. She has also de- controversy remains primarily a bat-
manded preservation of CCTV foot- tle between political parties and the
age from every constituency following Election Commission or becomes a
the state’s Assembly elections and wider public debate about elector-
made allegations concerning EVMs al-roll management.
and the counting process. For the Opposition, the immedi-
For the INDIA bloc, West Ben- ate task is to keep its parties together
gal is particularly important because and carry the issue from Delhi to the
the TMC and Congress do not have districts. For the Election Commis-
an uncomplicated political relation- sion, the task is to demonstrate that
ship in the state. Yet SIR has brought every questionable application is ex-
their concerns closer together at the amined through due process and that
national level. legitimate voters are not removed
The AIMIM has also opposed without adequate verification.
the exercise. Party chief Asaduddin SIR has given the Opposition a
Owaisi has described SIR as a poten- common platform. What happens
tial “backdoor NRC” and alleged that A detained protester holds a slogan during the left party(ies)-led protest, demanding the resig- next will depend less on the slogans at
it could eventually become a test of nation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the alleged irregularities in the its rallies than on the evidence emerg-
citizenship. Owaisi said his party had ing from the electoral-roll revision
opposed SIR from the beginning and electoral roll, in New Delhi on Tuesday (ANI Photo/Sumit) process itself.

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