Guwahati, Jan 23 (PTI) Opposition parties in Assam on Friday urged the EC to ensure that no eligible voter's name is removed from the electoral rolls during the ongoing Special Revision (SR), alleging misuse of Form 7 by 'BJP agents' to harass genuine citizens.
They also said that the deadline of February 2 for disposing of claims and objections filed during the SR is short and urged the Election Commission (EC) to extend it to complete the exercise.
The Left parties—CPI(M), CPI, CPI (ML), All India Forward Bloc and SUCI (C) — in a joint statement alleged that Form 7 has been used to file complaints against eligible voters of the minority community.
By using Form 7, one can request for deletion of own's name for any of three reasons — permanently shifted, already enrolled or not Indian citizen.
Similarly, any voter of that constituency can apply for deletion of names of others on basis of any of five reasons — death, under age, absent/ permanently shifted, already enrolled, or not Indian citizen. Hearing is conducted by the authorities on the basis on Form 7 applications before deletion of names.
The Left parties claimed that complaints through Form 7 have been filed against hundreds of voters using the name of a single complainant, with several cases where the person whose name was used claimed complete ignorance.
"Even names of living people have been attempted to be struck off by claiming them to be 'dead'. Mainly, such complaints have been filed against religious minorities," they said.
"Many BLOs have alleged that BJP leaders are pressurising them to delete the names of minority voters," they added.
The Left parties also claimed that the persons against whom the complaints have been filed are being asked to appear before the authorities at very short notice and the basic infrastructure for conducting hearing of such large number of people is missing at the designated offices.
"We demand before the EC that name of no eligible voter is deleted," they said, adding that punitive measures should be taken against those who file frivolous complaints and misuse the provisions of law.
Raising similar concerns in a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner, Trinamool Congress MP Sushmita Dev maintained that Form 7 objections for deletion of names are being submitted in bulk, with the complainant untraceable or claiming ignorance in almost all cases.
She cited the example of residents of Borkhola constituency submitting a public petition to the Cachar district commissioner, alleging that a local BJP Booth Level Agent (BLA) filed 22 Form 7 objections which were all false.
Dev, quoting data from the Assam Chief Electoral Officer's website, said 15,304 objections have been received under Silchar Assembly constituency, 10,249 in Barkhetri, 10,151 in Hajo-Sualkuchi, 9,671 in Katigorah, and 8,602 in Mangaldai, among others.
Given the volume of Form 7 objections, she maintained that it was impossible to serve notice to each and every individual and conduct hearings, as mandated, by February 2 as per the present schedule.
The TMC MP requested the EC to extend the date of hearing by another seven days to ensure that everyone gets a fair opportunity to defend their right to vote.
She also urged that names included in the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) be included in the final electoral rolls.
The final electoral rolls is scheduled to be published on February 10.