Students and members of civil society organisations protest SIR and CEC Gyanesh Kumar in Bengaluru
Bengaluru: The controversy over alleged misuse of Form 7 applications in Karnataka has reached a point where neither the Election Commission nor political parties can afford to let competing claims remain unresolved. The inquiry ordered across all 224 assembly constituencies following a six-hour dharna by chief minister DK Shivakumar and his cabinet colleagues could determine whether the controversy was driven by genuine electoral irregularities, isolated misuse or a wider pattern. Form 7 is a legitimate mechanism to object to a voter’s inclusion in the electoral roll.
Because political claims about systematic voter deletion would then have to be reassessed, if the findings do not support the allegations, it would equally matter. The issue, therefore, is not the use of Form 7 itself, but whether false or improperly sourced applications were used to trigger deletion proceedings against eligible voters. If the inquiry establishes attempts were made to delete genuine voters from the rolls, especially those from minority, Dalit and backward-class communities as alleged by Congress , it will raise serious questions about the safeguards used during the special intensive revision (SIR). The EC’s latest direction to states where SIR has been completed adds weight to this concern. It has asked officials to identify eligible voters who may have been left out and facilitate their re-enrolment. The direction effectively puts equal emphasis on correcting omissions after the revision.
For Karnataka, this means the Form 7 inquiry and the post-SIR exercise could answer competing questions: whether names were wrongly sought to be removed and whether eligible voters who disappeared from the rolls can be brought back.
Political analyst Vishwas Shetty said the investigation should go beyond counting applications. The answers should come from records, not political claims,” Shetty said. “The important questions are, who prepared the applications, who submitted them, whether the objectors were genuine and whether the voters concerned were truly ineligible. Political parties will also face scrutiny. Governing Congress has alleged an organised attempt to delete eligible voters, while BJP functionaries have rejected the allegation and maintained the objections were legitimate and filed through prescribed procedure.