Sign here, or lose the vote: unsigned Form-7s put Telangana’s roll revision on trial

Telangana's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is large enough to make a clerical shortcut look like a constitutional event. After 73,39,235 entries were flagged as absent, shifted, dead or duplicate, the draft roll was published on August 17, 2026. Claims and objections run to October 7; the final roll is due November 9. Form-7 is the route to object to an inclusion or seek deletion. It does not delete by itself: the Electoral Registration Officer must issue notice, hold a hearing and verify the claim. A knowingly false declaration is punishable under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, after a Rule 20 inquiry. The dispute began with paper that arrived already filled in. On October 1, Congress complained to CEO C. Sudharshan Reddy that BJP booth-level agent S. Balachander had submitted pre-printed Form-7s at Musheerabad booth 210 seeking deletion of Congress agent Mohammad Baba Sharfuddin, about 30 family members and another household. The families say they still live at the same addresses. At Goshamahal booth 173, about 15 pre-printed forms were refused for lack of signatures and bulk submission. In Bahadurpura, one form reportedly carried the voter's particulars while the objector column was blank. Officials say the checks worked in the cases that surfaced. Hyderabad District Election Officer R. V. Karnan said the Goshamahal forms were ineligible because they lacked signatures, and officials who visited Musheerabad found the 30 electors at home. On October 5, the CEO directed action against knowingly false statements after a Rule 20 inquiry, noting bulk filings alleged to be not genuine. Statewide, 28,753 Form-7s had been filed by October 1. What has not happened is equally part of the record. The Hindu reported on October 3 that election authorities had taken no action against the Musheerabad applicant and no criminal case had been filed; Karnan said a decision would follow the ERO's report. Congress has sought FIRs and a Special Investigation Team, and government advisor Mohammed Ali Shabbir Ali urged preservation of original forms and booth-wise publication of Form-7 lists. BJP state president N. Ramchander Rao denied on October 5 that any BJP booth-level agent submitted such forms. A ground report recorded the agent as saying he was instructed by his party; that account and the denial conflict. AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi alleged printed forms were being used to delete names; Congress alleges targeted deletion of Muslim and minority voters. The unanswered question is the paper trail: who printed the forms, who supplied the voter particulars, and how many similar filings were accepted before a BLO refused or a family objected. For voters, the immediate safeguard is to check the roll before the claims window closes. For the Commission, the test is whether notice, hearing and field verification happen before deletion, not after protest. The Justice will follow the CEO's action order and the Musheerabad case to their outcomes.