Deliberate planning: Owaisi alleges mass Muslim voter deletion bid in Hyderabad

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday alleged that pre-printed Form-7 applications were being used in Hyderabad's Goshamahal Assembly constituency to seek the deletion of Muslim voters from the electoral rolls. He urged the Election Commission and Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to act to stop what he called a "conspiracy".

Owaisi claimed that a BJP sympathiser had submitted pre-printed Form-7 applications against 122 voters in the constituency as part of a "deliberate planning". He said the Booth Level Officer rejected the application, but added that similar attempts could be taking place elsewhere in the state.

According to an AIMIM video release, Owaisi said, "If Sangh Parivar is not doing this, who is doing it." He demanded that the Election Commission examine such attempts and that a police case be filed against the man who allegedly submitted the pre-printed Form-7 application in Goshamahal.

Form-7 is used to raise objections to the proposed inclusion of a name or to seek deletion of a name from the electoral roll, while Form-6 is meant for new voters. Owaisi thanked Telangana Chief Electoral Officer, C Sudharshan Reddy, for directing District Election Officers in the state to act as per rules against applicants who knowingly make false statements or declarations in Forms 6, 6A, 7 and 8.

He also asked Chief Minister Revanth Reddy to look into such Form-7 applications. Owaisi further said he feared similar Form-7 submissions might have taken place in Uttar Pradesh during SIR. He said AIMIM would not remain quiet over any attempts to seek deletion of voters from the electoral rolls.

On October 4, while alleging that BJP activists were trying to remove Muslim voters' names through Form-7 during SIR, he had warned of a stir stronger than the one at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.

The Telangana Congress has also complained to the state CEO that a BJP Booth Level Agent in Musheerabad submitted Form-7 applications against 30 electors. Rejecting the allegations, Telangana BJP president N Ramchander Rao said no BJP BLAs had submitted such applications.

He said the SIR process was being carried out entirely by the state government machinery and that the Election Commission takes decisions on deletion of votes only after field-level inquiries into objections. The row has centred on allegations of wrongful Form-7 submissions, denials by the BJP, and demands for official action.- Ends