BJP booth agent booked over alleged bid to delete 30 Hyderabad voters
Hyderabad: Police have booked a BJP booth-level agent for allegedly submitting 30 pre-printed applications seeking the deletion of voters from the electoral roll in Hyderabad’s Musheerabad Assembly constituency.
The case was registered against S Balachander at Chikkadpally police station following a complaint from Musheerabad Electoral Registration Officer T Praveen Kumar Reddy. Balachander has been booked under Sections 217 and 318(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
The FIR accuses Balachander of bringing 30 pre-printed Form 7 applications to a booth-level officer at Polling Station No. 210 on September 28. Form 7 is used to object to the inclusion of a person in the electoral roll or to seek the deletion of an existing entry.
According to the FIR, the booth-level officer and supervisor refused to accept the applications. Balachander allegedly left the forms at the premises and departed.
A field verification conducted on October 1 found that all 30 voters continued to reside at their registered addresses in Musheerabad, The Indian Express reported. The officials concluded that the applications could not be accepted and were liable to be rejected.
The newspaper reported that all 30 people targeted by the applications were Muslims and that one was a Congress booth-level agent. The FIR pages examined for this report do not establish a wider conspiracy or show that the applications were authorised by the BJP’s leadership.
The Telangana Congress has alleged that the pre-filled applications indicate a coordinated attempt to remove genuine voters. It has sought a Special Investigation Team inquiry into what it described as a possible plan to engineer large-scale deletions during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of the electoral roll.
The BJP has denied that its booth-level agents submitted such applications. State BJP president N Ramchander Rao earlier accused the Congress of misleading the public and denied that the party was attempting to delete voters.
Following reports of bulk Form 7 applications, Telangana’s Chief Electoral Officer directed district election officials to act against applicants found to have knowingly submitted false statements or declarations.
The case is the first FIR reported in Telangana over allegedly false Form 7 applications during the current revision exercise. Police said the allegations remain under investigation.
(With inputs from PTI)
