Pre-printed and pre-targeted: the Form-7 paper trail threatening Muslim voters in Karnataka

BENGALURU: The names were already printed. Only the objections had to be filled in by hand. That, according to objectors and investigators, is how Form-7 — the instrument meant to delete a dead or shifted voter's name — was allegedly turned into a bulk-erasure machine aimed at Muslim voters during Karnataka's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls.

The pattern surfaced across the state. In Kodagu's Madikeri constituency, a couple who identified themselves to a journalist as party workers said 50 Form-7 applications were filed from their booth, the voter names pre-printed from their party office in Somwarpet. In Belagavi North, booth-level officers at six polling stations told The Hindu that two men claiming to be from the Belagavi City Corporation brought pre-printed Form-7 applications seeking the deletion of Muslim voters' names in bulk and pressured the officers to sign them. The officers refused.

In Bhalki, businessman Mohammed Ateeq Ahmed complained that 3,244 Form-7 applications were submitted between September 21 and 23, describing eligible voters — including himself — as “shifted” or “absent”. A preliminary verification allegedly found that 32 named individuals and unidentified associates had forged signatures and entered their own mobile numbers in the applications. The Bhalki Town police registered a case under provisions for criminal conspiracy, forgery, cheating and public mischief.

In Mysuru's Narasimharaja constituency, social worker Syed Hasarathulla said a Form-7 objection was filed against him and 28 others, claiming they no longer lived at their registered address. He says he has lived and voted at that address for 39 years. Police registered a case under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita provisions on cheating, forgery and acts endangering public harmony.

And in Belagavi, a BJP leader, Ravi Patil, has been booked for forgery over an alleged attempt to delete 198 Muslim voters — an FIR under cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and provoking public mischief, with investigation underway.

The Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer has ordered legal action over false claims in Form-7 applications, noting that in several cases the voter particulars “appear to have been pre-printed”, with the objector's details filled in afterwards. Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar has expressed concern that bulk objections could disproportionately affect minorities, Dalits, tribals and backward communities, and directed officials to compile booth-wise data on bulk filings. Food and Civil Supplies Minister Rizwan Arshad has called for a halt to unrestricted private objections and a formal inquiry.

Actor and activist Prakash Raj, touring the state on a ten-day “SIR resistance” yatra, has alleged an effort to delete the names of around 21,000 Muslim voters statewide, calling it “Operation Kamala through Form 7”. A citizens' investigation report has devoted a separate section to “Operation Form 7”, citing bulk filings between September 20 and 24 in Moodigere, Babaleshwar, Bidar and Bhalki, and alleging many sought the deletion of Muslim voters and were associated with local BJP or Sangh Parivar office-bearers.

The BJP has rejected the allegations. State president B.Y. Vijayendra alleged Muslim voters were being gathered at mosques and marriage halls during the SIR to add their names, and said there was nothing wrong in asking the Election Commission to verify and delete names suspected to have been added illegally: “If the name is correct, the Election Commission will retain it; if it is illegal, it will be removed.”

Election officials maintain that every Form-7 application is subject to due process and verification, and that no automatic deletions take place. The claims-and-objections window has closed and disposal is ongoing, with final rolls expected later in October. For the thousands of voters who woke to find their names challenged by forms they never saw — filed by hands they never met — that assurance will be tested booth by booth.