AHMEDABAD: A political controversy has erupted in Gujarat over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls after Form No. 7 was allegedly misused to seek the deletion of the voter ID of Padma Shri awardee and well-known Gujarati comedian Shahabuddin Rathod.
The incident has triggered sharp criticism from the Congress, which has accused authorities of manipulating the SIR process to selectively remove voters’ names.
“Someone has filled Form No. 7 to remove my name from the voter list,” Rathod said, adding that he immediately took the matter up with the administration. “I have spoken to the Mamlatdar about this,” he stated.
According to Rathod, the Mamlatdar assured him that his name would not be deleted merely because someone else submitted a Form No. 7. “Even if someone fills the form in my name, my voter registration cannot be cancelled without proper verification,” Rathod was told.
But the Congress argues that the problem goes far beyond one high-profile name. Across the state, residents claimed that elderly citizens above 60 years of age have documents suggesting that they have applied to cancel their own voter names. The common thread, Congress alleges, is Form No. 7 and the absence of consent.
Calling the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) a direct assault on democracy, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi posted on social media that the process was being misused for large-scale electoral manipulation.
“Wherever there is SIR, there is vote theft,” Gandhi said, claiming that what is being carried out in Gujarat in the name of SIR is “not an administrative exercise, but a well-planned, organised and strategic operation to steal votes.”
Describing the process as “shocking and dangerous,” Gandhi pointed out that “thousands of objections have been filed under the same name,” alleging that voters from specific communities and booths that traditionally support the Congress were selectively targeted.
“Wherever the BJP fears defeat, voters are simply erased from the system,” he alleged.
Former Congress MLA from Chotila, Ritwik Makwana, has termed the episode a deliberate and dangerous manipulation of the electoral process.
“In the name of electoral roll revision, a conspiracy is being carried out to cancel the names of opposition supporters and prominent individuals,” Makwana said.
He warned that the Rathod episode should serve as a wake-up call.
“If the voting rights of a Padma Shri awardee are put at risk, imagine the situation of an ordinary citizen,” he said.
Makwana urged every voter to immediately verify their name on the electoral roll.
“This is no longer a political issue it is a constitutional one,” he said.
The Congress leadership has linked the incident to earlier warnings issued by the party.
State Congress president Amit Chavda had recently accused the BJP of attempting to strip voting rights from lakhs of citizens by misusing Form No. 7.
“The BJP is preparing to cancel the names of nearly 10 lakh voters,” Chavda had alleged, calling it a systematic attempt to influence elections by altering the voter base.