Owaisi alleges Form 7 bid targeted 122 Muslim voters in Goshamahal

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has alleged that pre-filled Form 7 applications sought the deletion of 122 Muslim voters in Hyderabad's Goshamahal constituency. He asked the Election Commission to investigate the bulk applications and act against those responsible.

Owaisi said the applications were submitted at polling booth 28 by a person identified as Tudu Murty Janardhan. He described Janardhan as a BJP supporter or sympathiser, an allegation that has not been independently established.

The Hyderabad MP said his party examined 60 of the 122 names and found them in the 2002 and 2026 electoral rolls. He said the names were also present in the draft roll prepared during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision.

Owaisi cited an octogenarian resident, Mirza Farooq Baig, whose name was among those proposed for deletion. He said Baig had lived in the neighbourhood for decades and appeared in successive electoral rolls.

The AIMIM leader thanked the Booth Level Officer at booth 28 for remaining alert and refusing to accept the applications. He warned that wrongful deletions could occur elsewhere if election officials failed to scrutinise similar submissions.

Owaisi said he had written to Telangana Chief Electoral Officer C Sudharshan Reddy and sought action under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950. His representation also referred to polling booth 173 and another elector who had reportedly lived at the same address for three decades.

A Telangana CEO memo issued on October 5 noted allegations that bulk Form 7 applications filed before Electoral Registration Officers were not genuine. It directed district officials to investigate such submissions and act against applicants who knowingly made false statements.

In a separate case in Hyderabad's Musheerabad constituency, police registered an FIR against BJP Booth Level Agent S Balachander over 30 allegedly false Form 7 applications. PTI reported that it was Telangana's first FIR concerning allegedly false Form 7 submissions during the revision exercise.

The Musheerabad FIR and Owaisi's Goshamahal allegation concern different applicants and polling areas. The first is under police investigation, while the reports reviewed for this copy did not mention an FIR in the Goshamahal case.

Telangana BJP president N Ramchander Rao had denied that BJP Booth Level Agents submitted false Form 7 applications in the Musheerabad case. In an earlier response to Owaisi's broader allegations, BJP spokesperson N V Subash asked him to submit evidence to the appropriate authorities.

Form 7 allows an elector to object to a proposed inclusion or seek deletion of a name from an electoral roll.

(With inputs from PTI)