Allegations have emerged in Gujarat of mass submissions of Form 7 applications seeking the deletion of names from electoral rolls. Amid the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercice, several voters have claimed that their names, phone, and Elector’s Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers were misused, and signatures forged to file false claims. In some cases, voters alleged they were asked to sign hundreds of Form 7 applications and were told the forms were for inclusion of names, not deletion.
Opposition parties, including the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), have alleged that leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party orchestrated the exercise, targeting Opposition and minority strongholds through the mass submission of pre-typed forms. They claim that while the objectors’ names and signatures appeared handwritten, the applications were filed in bulk, potentially leading to the deletion of lakhs of names across the State.
They further alleged that many of the mobile numbers listed on the forms did not belong to the objectors, and the numbers belonged to unrelated people, mostly from other States. The BJP, however, denied the allegations, asserting that the SIR exercise was a transparent process and that neither the party nor the government had any role in filing the applications.
According to the Election Commission of India, any registered voter in a constituency may submit a Form 7 objection. While there is no limit on the number of objections a person can file, submission of more than five applications by a single individual requires mandatory scrutiny by the Electoral Registration Officer to prevent misuse.
When The Hindu contacted some objectors in Devbhoomi Dwarka, Rajkot, and Ahmedabad districts after accessing Form 7 applications submitted to BLOs in their names seeking deletion, they said they had never authorised any deletions and were unaware of such forms. However, the applications carried their names, EPIC numbers, contact details, and signatures.
One such application was submitted in the name of Maitra Maheshbhai from Rajkot South, objecting to the inclusion of Ranajisinh Bhatti’s name. While Mr. Maitra’s details were handwritten, Mr. Bhatti’s particulars were pre-printed on the form. When contacted, Mr. Maitra, an electrician, said he had never submitted any Form 7. “No, I am not aware of any such form, and I did not submit any,” he said. When asked whether he was associated with any political party, he replied that he was linked to the BJP.
Another application was submitted in the name of Mansukh Kadavala, a farmer from Bhanvad, objecting to the inclusion of Mustufa D. Surma’s name in the electoral rolls. The contact details provided on the application were incorrect, and the mobile number did not exist. After obtaining Mr. Kadavala’s actual contact details and reaching him, he too said he had not submitted any such form. Mr. Surma, a local journalist, said he found more than three dozen Form 7 applications submitted to the BLO in Mr. Kadavala’s name, even though Mr. Kadavala denies filing any of them.
Similar complaints have surfaced across the State. In Junagadh, a BJP councillor filed an objection seeking the deletion of Padma Shri awardee and Gujarati folk artist Mir Haji Kasam Rathod’s name from the voters’ list, triggering outrage and allegations of irregularities. He later claimed that the objection was due to a discrepancy in the surname.
Devayat Rajshibhai Karmur, a farmer from Sanakhala in Devbhoomi Dwarka, also said he had neither authorised anyone nor submitted any forms and was unaware of any such process. “I am a farmer in a remote village and do not go to Bhanvad, the taluka headquarters, even once in two months. Why are you enquiring about this?” he said. An application in his name had been submitted to the BLO seeking the deletion of Ibrahim Sanghar of Nana Mandha in Khambhalia Taluka, said Rambhai Jogani, a local AAP leader from Khambhalia.
The Hindu found that in Ahmedabad’s Gomtipur area, some residents were asked to sign between 300 and 1,200 Form 7 applications at the residence of a local leader. They were told the forms were meant for the inclusion of names. After discovering that the applications were actually for deletion, they submitted affidavits to the EC on January 25, requesting that the forms they had signed not be considered.
“On January 11, we were taken to the office-cum-residence of a local BJP leader, where he asked me to sign 700 forms, saying they were for inclusion of voters from our ward, not deletion. Later, a BLO informed me that the forms I had signed were for deletion, after which I objected and filed an affidavit. The leader had promised to appoint us as BLA-2 and ensure that our municipal work faced no hurdles if we signed the forms,” said Patan resident Arbaz Khan, 29, a steam press worker. His friends, Mohammed Arif Patan and Faraz Khan, who accompanied him, said they signed 330 forms and over 700 forms respectively, and also recorded a video of the signing. Mr. Khan said that around 20 people like him filed affidavits between January 24 and January 28.
As the western State moves towards finalising its electoral rolls, election officials said on January 29 that the SIR exercise had so far recorded 6.88 lakh applications for the addition of names and 9,88,621 Form 7 applications for deletion. However, contradicting this statement, the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer issued another release two days later, on January 31, stating that January 30 was the last day to submit claims and objections, with a total of just 1,83,235 Form 7 submissions. Asked about the verification process, an IAS officer explained that after receiving the applications, BLOs conduct field verification and forward the applications to the AERO, who scrutinises the documents and BLO reports before sending them to the ERO. The final decision is taken at the ERO level. “Only the final numbers are issued by the CEO’s office,” the officer said. This explains that the numbers issued by the CEO office are final. However, when contacted, CEO Hareet Shulka did not respond to queries regarding the large discrepancy between the figures released two days apart.
In December, as part of the SIR, the electoral rolls in Gujarat saw a reduction of nearly 74 lakh voters. As per the revised draft, released on December 19, 2025, the total electorate in the State declined from over 5.08 crore to around 4.34 crore, reflecting corrections and deletions following verification drives across districts.
Meanwhile, Nilofarbanu Aiyub Ali Saiyad, a member of the Vehrakhadi gram panchayat in Anand district, alleged that an objection was filed seeking the deletion of her name. She said she learned that a Form 7 was submitted by one Girishbhai Zala, whom she does not know, objecting to her inclusion as a voter. “I am very much alive and an elected member of the gram panchayat, yet my name was sought to be removed,” she said.
A visit to Vehrakhadi found that Ms. Saiyad’s case was not isolated. The village has around 7,500 registered voters, of whom approximately 3,500 belong to a minority community. Villagers said that 965 Form 7 applications seeking deletion of names had been submitted from the village, and they approached the EC not to consider the forms with their names. Another villager, Saiyad Hazrat Ali, 62, a farmer, said he was shocked to learn that Form 7 applications had been submitted seeking deletion of the names of 20 members of his family. “We are four brothers and a family of 68 members. Applications were filed to delete 20 votes, which is completely unfair. They are trying to remove us from the voters’ list. This is our motherland, and they cannot snatch away our constitutional right,” he said.
Opposition parties have alleged large-scale misuse of the provision, claiming that ruling party workers have submitted thousands of Form 7 applications, allegedly targeting voters from minority communities or constituencies where the ruling party had a weak electoral presence. Vehrakhadi village falls under the Anklav Assembly constituency, represented by State Congress president Amit Chavda. Calling the alleged exercise a “threat to democracy,” Mr. Chavda alleged that the BJP’s State headquarters, Kamalam, was sending lists of names to be deleted, which local leaders and officials were “blindly following.”
“In fact, Form 7 applications are being circulated with names already typed on them. We condemn this illegal practice by the BJP and have asked affected voters to file affidavits,” he said. He demanded legal action against the EC officials who accepted the forms “illegally”, as well as those who submitted them, alleging that false information was provided to a public representative, which was an criminal offence. “I demand CCTV footage for review of submissions,” he said.
State AAP chief Isudan Gadhvi accused the ruling party of attempting to strip Gujaratis of their voting rights and said his party would launch a Statewide campaign on the issue.
State BJP president and former Minister Jagadish Vishwakarma dismissed the claims by the Congress and AAP, saying the SIR process was conducted transparently and that neither the party nor the government had any role in submitting deletion applications. He accused the Opposition of attempting to politicise the issue to divert attention from government welfare work. “If large-scale deletions were really a problem, they would have occurred during the Congress regime, yet they are holding us responsible,” he added.
