Owaisi says Hyderabad will see massive protests if ECI doesn’t act on Form 7 misuse

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Hyderabad MP and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that Hyderabad would witness massive protests if the Election Commission of India (ECI) does not act against those who are allegedly seeking the deletion of genuine Muslim voters from the electoral rolls by filing Form 7s, citing false reasons. 

“We cannot tolerate if despite being genuine voters, people’s names are sought to be deleted from electoral rolls through Form 7 just for being Muslim. If ECI looks the other way, allowing BJP members to strike out names of Muslim voters, we will not let that happen,” Owaisi said, while addressing a gathering at the Jalsa-e-Milad-un-Nabi event on Saturday, October 3, at the Milad Maidan near Golconda.

Owaisi made the above remarks soon after an incident of alleged misuse of Form 7 came to light from Hyderabad.

Around 30 Muslim voters at a polling station in Musheerabad constituency had to face an inquiry from Election Commission officials after their neighbour SV Balachander, also the booth level agent (BLA) of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for their polling station, filed Form 7 objections to their names being included in the electoral roll. Balachander allegedly claimed that the voters, including the family members of Congress BLA and the party’s Bagh Lingampally division vice president Mohammad Baba Sharfuddin, had duplicate votes.

Sharfuddin told TNM that when he confronted Balachander, he said he didn’t even know what a Form 7 was, and that he had signed and submitted pre-printed forms based on instructions from his party office.

“If false Form 7 forms are being filed, we appeal to the Election Commission to take action against those responsible. If this drama does not stop, remember, protests bigger than those at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar will take place on the roads and streets of Hyderabad, and it will create a lot of trouble for you,” Owaisi said.

Form 7 is used to object to the inclusion of a name in the electoral roll or to seek its deletion for reasons such as the person having died, absent or permanently shifted from their residence, being already enrolled in the electoral rolls elsewhere, being under 18 years of age, or not being an Indian citizen. Any elector registered in the existing electoral roll of a constituency can file a Form 7 application seeking the deletion of another elector within the same constituency.

Following the Musheerabad incident, Congress leaders said they also found pre-printed forms seeking deletion of Muslim voters in Goshamahal and Bahadurpura constituencies, but these forms were unsigned and not accepted by the Booth Level Officers (BLOs).

Several instances of alleged misuse of Form 7 have been reported from across India, often targeting Muslims, especially amid the ongoing SIR exercise.