Published Oct 02, 2026 | 5:43 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 02, 2026 | 5:43 PM
Pulipati Rajesh Kumar, chairman of the Congress’s Election Commission Coordination Committee, said it was provided to him by a BJP insider.
Synopsis: The Telangana Congress has alleged that more pre-printed Form 7 applications seeking the deletion of Muslim voters have been distributed to BJP booth-level agents, after similar filings in Musheerabad. One such pre-printed application seeking the deletion of a Muslim voter from a polling station in Aliyabad in the Bahadurpura constituency, with the voter’s details and address pre-filled but the applicant’s details left blank, was seen by South First.
A day after the ruling Congress in Telangana alleged that over 30 Form 7 applications seeking the deletion of eligible Muslim voters from the electoral rolls during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) were filed by a BJP booth-level agent (BLA) in Hyderabad’s Musheerabad constituency, the party on Friday, 2 October, said it had uncovered more such applications in Bahadurpura.
South First has seen one such pre-printed application seeking the deletion of a Muslim voter from a polling station in Aliyabad. It has the voter’s details and address pre-filled, but the applicant’s details are left blank.
Pulipati Rajesh Kumar, chairman of the Telangana Congress’s Election Commission Coordination Committee, said the application was provided to him by an insider within the BJP.
He said the insider told him that numerous such pre-printed Form 7 applications had been distributed among BLAs through Assembly constituency in-charges, who, in turn, received them from the head office.
“We have information from inside sources of BJP that pre-printed Form 7 applications have been distributed among their agents for all 119 Assembly constituencies. Many of them have still not officially filed them,” Rajesh Kumar told South First.
“We demand criminal action against everyone who is behind this, even the higher-ups in the party if they are found to be involved.”
Separately, reports of bulk filings of Form 7 targeting minorities have emerged in Karnataka. Following hours-long protests by the Congress at the State Election Commission office on Thursday, the Karnataka CEO ordered action against such illegal filings.
Form 7 is used to object to the proposed inclusion of a person’s name in an electoral roll or seek deletion of a name already on the roll. It can also be used by a voter to request deletion of their own name if they have permanently shifted, are already enrolled elsewhere or are not an Indian citizen.
The TPCC said it is still awaiting a formal response to its letter submitted to Chief Electoral Officer C Sudharshan Reddy on Thursday about the bulk Form 7 filings in Musheerabad.
The complaint named S Balachander, also known as Balu, the BJP BLA for Polling Booth No. 210, as the applicant in the 30 filings. The applications reportedly target Congress BLA Shafiuddin and his family.
Mary Thomas, Booth Level Officer (BLO) for Polling Station No. 210, told South First that the Form 7 applications in question are still under review.
“The BJP agent gave us these forms saying the family of Shafiuddin are registered to vote in another constituency as well. They said they were supplied these forms by their party higher-ups,” she said.
“We have already verified before that this family has votes only in this constituency, but they asked us to check again. We have submitted the applications to the Deputy Commissioner (Electoral Registration Officer) for review.”
Telangana CEO Sudharshan Reddy said at a press briefing on Thursday that election officials would thoroughly verify all Form 7 applications before making any decision.
The Election Commission of India separately said that EROs have been directed to review cases in which more than five Form 7 applications for voter deletion are filed by an individual.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
