4 min readRanchiUpdated: Sep 2, 2026 02:58 PM IST
Waiting for the fate of the Form 7 applications filed against their inclusion in the electoral roll in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Jharkhand, voters in Godda’s Maheshtikri village say one fear haunts them: “What if we’re not considered Indian citizens?”
An investigation by The Indian Express, published on Wednesday, showed that since the draft roll was published on August 5, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) of at least four booths in Godda have complained to the Block Development Officer of Basantrai about submission of multiple Form 7s by Booth Level Agents (BLAs) of the BJP, many of them not in the prescribed format, and most of them against members of the minority community.
The BJP as well as the Chief Electoral Officer told The Indian Express that the BLAs were well within their rights to file the objections. Under Election Commission rules, every Form 7 application is decided on the basis of a probe.
However, villagers in Maheshtikri, where one BLA of the BJP has filed at least 25 Form 7s, remain uncertain of what happens next.
Abdul Mannan Khan, 70, said his family has lived in the village for generations, and stressed that his name was in the 2003 voter list.
“This is our home and we are Jharkhandi too. So how can our names be deleted?”
The BLO, the EC representative for the area who is a state government employee, has assured Khan his name, and that of his family, will not be deleted. But the fear remains and, linked to that, the anxiety that they could lose access to state welfare programmes.
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Another voter, 50-year-old Mohammad Naushad, said his grandparents had been mapped to the 2003 electoral roll, and that he spent his childhood in Maheshtikri.
He only left home to find work as a labourer, he said, but makes it a point to vote in Jharkhand. “What if our names are deleted and we do not get government benefits? What if we are not considered Indian citizens?”
Naushad’s father Mohammad Shafiq, 80, told the Express he too is a registered voter from Maheshtikri, as is his wife, Bibi Basilan. “I have been voting here since I turned 18… We have been here so many years. We have the khatian (land proof of being a Jharkhandi), every record and paper. Now there is suddenly an obstacle.”
BDO Sriman Marandi confirmed he had received complaints from four booths – Maheshtikri, Pachua Kita, Lochni and Baghakol.
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A report will be filed after a ground verification, he said, adding BLOs had been told not to act on forms being submitted “because we don’t know the source”. The BJP-appointed agents, he said, could have written to him instead of filing the deletion requests directly.
The state’s top electoral officer, K Ravi Kumar, told The Indian Express deletion requests “can be submitted in bulk”. He also said that BLAs ought not to have turned down the requests.
The SIR exercise began in Jharkhand on June 30. The draft list has excluded 16.48 per cent of all voters, amounting to around 43 lakh deletions.
Claims and objections can be filed till September 4.
