Mangaluru: Dakshina Kannada District Congress Committee Minority Department president Shahul Hameed KK and other party leaders on Monday submitted a memorandum to the district administration seeking action against BJP leaders for allegedly misusing Form 7 of the Special Intensive Revision process.Congress demanded Assembly constituency-wise verification of Form 7 applications, particularly suspicious or large-scale submissions, and special scrutiny where a single individual, group or organisation had filed an unusually high number.The memorandum alleged that pre-printed Form 7 applications were submitted from BJP offices in Belthangady and Puttur to remove minority Muslim and Christian voters from electoral rolls. It sought criminal cases against those involved.Form 7 permits applications to delete names from electoral rolls, but the applicant must prove the grounds for deletion, the memorandum said. Citing Election Commission’s Manual on Electoral Rolls, it said Section 31 provides for punishment for false declarations and applies to people submitting applications on behalf of others using false information.Hameed later alleged that BJP was “systematically carrying out a massacre of democracy”. Referring to reports that nearly 275 minority voters had been removed from electoral rolls in Belthangady, he claimed lists proposing deletions were sent directly from BJP office in Puttur to election officials instead of through the prescribed Form 7 process.He alleged the requests falsely claimed that the voters did not reside at their listed addresses. Documents submitted to the deputy commissioner included a letter on BJP letterhead seeking the removal of names from the voters’ list, he said.
