Congress and BJP-JD(S) trade charges over bulk Form 7 filings during SIR in Karnataka

The political row between the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Janata Dal (Secular) alliance over the alleged misuse of Form 7 during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Karnataka showed no signs of abating, with both sides trading fresh allegations. 

The Karnataka police have booked several people across the state for maliciously attempting to seek the deletion of Muslim voters by filing Form 7 applications in bulk. 

Such allegations have emerged in several Assembly constituencies, including Bhalki, Babaleshwar, Koppa, Kodagu, Belthangady, Ballari, Malleswaram, Jayanagar and Basavakalyan. In some places, the media reported that the people who filed such applications had withdrawn them, though there is no rule that allows this. 

These allegations first came to light around September 24, the last day to file claims and objections for the ongoing SIR. TNM was among the first to report on such attempts, along with Kannada newspapers Prajavani and Vartha Bharati.

Read: Karnataka SIR: 38 people seek deletion of 3,750 voters, mostly Muslims, in 2 seats

On Tuesday, October 6, Chief Minister DK Shivakumar alleged that BJP and JD(S) workers had withdrawn and destroyed more than one lakh Form 7 applications after submitting them in bulk. "Those workers should tell us who gave them the forms. An investigation is required into this," he said.

Shivakumar alleged that BJP and JD(S) workers had received between 500 and 3,000 Form 7 applications each at the constituency level and later approached booth level officers (BLOs) to take back forms submitted in bulk. "They have burnt them. In all places, they have collected back more than a lakh such forms, threatening the BLOs," he said.

Shivakumar also alleged that some applications falsely declared living voters dead and questioned how those submitting the forms obtained personal electoral details. He said some of those who submitted the applications did not know what they were signing or what the markings on the forms meant.

Saying it was his "bound duty to protect even their (opposition parties) voters", the Chief Minister added that the Election Commission had directed all taluk offices and EROs not to act on objections without verification. 

CEO Anbukumar has said that no voter has been deleted so far based on Form 7 objections and that the applications would be examined through the prescribed process.

BJP MLC C T Ravi called on the Commission to register a case on its own against people making baseless allegations about the electoral process. He also sought legal action against Shivakumar, saying the Chief Minister had accused the BJP of attempting to remove 60 lakh to 70 lakh voters belonging to a particular community. "A case should be registered against the CM for making such an allegation. If he cannot prove it, he should apologise publicly," Ravi said.

BL Santosh, Kharge exchange

The exchange of tweets between RSS leader BL Santhosh and Home Minister Priyank continued, with Santhosh defending the bulk filing of Form 7 in the latest exchange, saying it was legal. 

Home Minister Priyank Kharge responded by asking Santhosh to first read the withdrawal letters relating to thousands of Form 7 applications filed by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and BJP cadres.

Kharge then posed a series of questions: why so many of the applications were now being withdrawn; where the cadres got pre-printed Form 7s containing voters' details; where they obtained voter data, including information identifying voters by religion; and whether machine-readable electoral rolls or voter databases were made available to them, and if so, by whom.

"And most importantly: Why is the BJP-RSS ecosystem repeatedly answering questions that are being asked of the Election Commission and the CEC? Are they paying you to be their spokesperson?" Kharge asked.