Overview
The Election Commission of India (ECI) is carrying out a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists. Recent reports from Karnataka, Rajasthan and Gujarat allege that political workers have filed hundreds of Form 7 in bulk, often without the knowledge of the voters concerned.
Key Developments
- Bulk filing of Form 7 reported in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
- Ground reports indicate that a single individual’s name was used to lodge hundreds of objections.
- Political parties’ Booth Level Agents (BLAs) can submit up to 30 forms per day, while there is no cap on forms filed by a registered voter.
- ECI says filing more than five objections by the same person will trigger a mandatory review by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO).
- Opposition parties claim the misuse is coordinated to delete eligible voters and benefit the ruling party.
Important Facts
- For the third phase of SIR covering 16 states and 3 union territories, there are 3,42,409 BLAs for an electorate of 36,73,87,831 voters.
- This works out to roughly one BLA for every 1,073 voters.
- Form 7 applications must be examined by a Booth Level Officer (BLO) before any deletion.
- Many voters were unaware that a deletion request had been filed against them.
Exam Relevance
Understanding the SIR process and the safeguards around electoral roll is essential for GS‑2 (Polity) questions on electoral reforms, voter rights, and the functioning of the ECI. The episode highlights challenges of administrative oversight, misuse of procedural tools, and the need for robust checks in a large‑scale democracy.
Way Forward
To protect voter rights, the ECI should consider:
- Introducing a uniform, country‑wide Standard Operating Procedure that verifies the identity and constituency of every Form 7 filer.
- Setting a reasonable cap on the number of Form 7 applications an individual can submit in a given period.
- Deploying technology‑driven alerts to inform voters instantly when a deletion request is lodged against their name.
- Conducting random audits of bulk filings to detect patterns of coordinated misuse.
Such measures would reinforce the integrity of the electoral roll and uphold the democratic principle of universal adult franchise.