State CEO rejects political parties’ claim that Form 7 was being filled in large numbers to delete name of targeted voters

In a communication to the UP Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on Thursday, the EC said it has considered the CEO’s request and “other relevant factors” and revised the schedule. The EC had announced the SIR of electoral rolls in nine states, including UP, and three Union Territories in October last year.

The CEO had sent the request taking note of suggestions received from the political parties, officials said.

The electoral rolls of the other states and UTs are scheduled to be published on February 14.

The draft roll published in UP saw the deletion of 19% of electors, taking the total down from 15.44 crore to 12.55 crore. After that, another 3.36 crore or 26% of the electors have been flagged for notices. If these electors do not appear for hearings or provide the documents required to establish eligibility, they can also be deleted from the final rolls.

In a meeting with the UP CEO on January 27, the ruling BJP and the Opposition Samajwadi Party and Congress had suggested extending the SIR period in view of a large number of Form 6 (for addition of name in electoral roll) as well as claims and objections for additions and deletions of names.

Speaking to mediapersons in Lucknow on Friday, CEO Navdeep Rinwa said the booth level officers (BLOs) have been directed to be present at their polling stations from 10 am to 12 pm on every working day to facilitate the electors with the draft electoral roll, lists of “absent, “shifted”, “deceased”, “duplicate” and “refused-to-sign” voters, as well as the lists of those with mapping discrepancies, to help people verify their status.

For hearing of the notices, 403 electoral registration officers (EROs) and 8,990 assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs) have been appointed across the state and more EROs will be deployed to speed up the process, the CEO said.

Over the political parties’ claim — particularly from the SP — that Form 7 was being filled in large numbers to delete name of targeted voters, the CEO said Form 7 was not accepted in bulk and the parties’ booth level agents (BLAs) can collect and file a maximum of 10 forms in a day but they also have to file an undertaking that the forms submitted were genuine and the reasons were valid.

From January 6 to February 4, the BLAs filed only 1,567 Form 7 and 37,779 Form 6 with their undertakings, he said, adding that individual voters directly filed 82,684 Form 7.

“It is not possible that the name of an elector can be deleted on a Form 7 filed secretly by someone. On receiving Form 7, the ERO issues notice to both the person who filed the form and to the person against whom the form is filed. During the hearing on the notice, the objector has to present evidence in support of his objection. Then the ERO makes a decision on it. The apprehensions expressed by the political parties and others that Form 7 was being filed in large numbers and names would be deleted in bulk are not correct,” Rinwa said.

The political parties have deployed 5.80 lakh BLAs in the state.

He further informed that a total of 82,684 Form-7 and 37.80 lakh Form 6 were received from January 6 to February 4.

The rate of submission of Form 6 was constantly increasing as 3.51 lakh form were received on Thursday only, he added.