Hyderabad: Pre-printed Form 7 applications for bulk deletion of voters as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has rocked three assembly constituencies of Hyderabad: Musheerabad, Goshamahal and Bahadurpura. After the complaints about the misuse of these forms was confirmed on Monday (October 5), the District Election Officer and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Commissioner R.V. Karnan ordered a case against a Booth Level Agent (BLA) Sivegi Balachander, allegedly a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker.Balachander allegedly submitted 31 Form 7 applications in Musheerabad, seeking the deletion of as many voters in the family of a BLA from the Congress party, Sharfuddin, on September 29. The applications were made on the ground that the Sharfuddin family had shifted out of its address.Similar bulk applications were reported in Bahadurpura on October 1 and Goshamahal two days later, but in these cases the Booth Level Officers (BLO) did not accept them as they did not contain names nor signatures of the applicants.Also read: Karnataka CEO Orders Probe Into Bulk Form-7 Deletions After CM Shivakumar’s ProtestThe controversy came to light after a Booth Level Officer (BLO) approached the Sharfuddin family and found all the members were available at the given address (opposite a Hanuman temple in Musheerabad). Thereafter, he alerted his supervising officers who, in turn, alerted the District Election Officer, Karnan.Karnan has ordered a preliminary enquiry by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) of the constituency.Karnan told The Wire that after the preliminary enquiry, a regular enquiry had been initiated against Balachander, the Musheerabad BLA, under Rule 20 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. The next phase will be to prosecute him under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 (RPA), which makes it a punishable offence to knowingly make false written statements or declarations regarding electoral rolls.Rule 20 of the Registration of Electors Rules, on the other hand, mandates voter registration officers to hold a summary inquiry into every claim or objection in respect of notices received.Congress seeks SIT probe, CEO takes stepsEarlier in the day, the election cell of the Telangana Congress Committee approached Hyderabad Police Commissioner V.C. Sajjanar, seeking a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the role of BLAs deployed for SIR. The party alleges that BLAs affiliated with BJP adopted dubious method to delete names of Congress sympathisers from voter lists in the state. The party said that pre-printed and pre-filled Form 7s, filled up in advance, were part of the effort.Led by P. Rajesh Kumar, the party’s state election cell chief, Congress activists demanded a probe into the role of BJP state president N. Ramchander Rao in the alleged malpractices.Separately, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) C. Sudarshan Reddy issued a memo to Commissioner Karnan and all DEOs in the state, asking them to issue instructions to EROs to take action against applicants who have made knowingly false statements or declarations in Form 6, 6A, 7 or 8.Section 31 of the RPA, following an inquiry under Rule 20 of the Electors Rules will apply in these cases as well.Reddy noted that it had come to the notice of his office about instances of filing of bulk applications in Form 7 before the EROs and it is “also alleged that such forms are not genuine”.Hyderabad MP and president of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen Asaduddin Owaisi alleged that backdoor tactics using Form 7 applications to remove voters were intentionally aimed at disenfranchising Muslim voters based on their religious identity. He warned that if the authorities failed to take action against the culprits, Hyderabad would witness a protest bigger than that being held at Jantar Mantar.Also read: ‘Mistake on Your Part’: Bombay HC Slams ECI Over SIR Deletion of Six Who Had Filed Form 8Owaisi said that BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh members were attempting to remove Muslim voters from electoral rolls. He claimed to have seen pre-printed applications that did not detail who was filing them but had the details of voters sought to be deleted from the rolls.BJP denies role in filing bulk Form 7 applicationsBJP state president Ramchander Rao dismissed the allegations of wrongdoing by his party cadre and said the SIR was entirely under the state government machinery, supervised by the Election Commission of India.He said decisions on deleting voters’ names were taken only after field verification by election officials. Merely filling Form 7 did not automatically result in deletion of names.Talking to The Wire, Rao said there was no bar on using pre-printed forms for claims and objections in SIR. He said it had become a “habit” for Congress and AIMIM leaders to target the BJP for anything related to deletion of voters. “Why would the BJP indulge in such practices when it is aware of the elaborate and transparent process of deletion under election laws,” he asked. Questions were being raised only to malign the party, he added.File photo: Voters wait to submit documents after receiving notices for Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, at a verification center, in Hyderabad, Telangana, September 8, 2026. Photo: PTI“The Form 7 mechanism exists within the election framework to identify and remove fake entries. Any objection is subject to due inquiry before action is taken,” he said, accusing the Congress of creating a “commotion”.The forms taken to BLOs at Bahadurpura and Goshamahal, which were rejected, showed that the voters names and addresses were printed on the forms rather than handwritten. However, the applicant’s name was missing.When a bunch of 15 Form 7s were taken for submission by a BJP-affiliated BLA in Goshamahal, the BLO of the polling station informed him that there were strict instructions not to accept Form 7s in bulk.BLAs can file up to 30 claims for deletion during the claims and objections period, which closes in Telangana on October 7. They cannot submit more than 10 forms a day. However, the applicant at Musheerabad approached the BLO with 31 forms on a single day, September 29, Congress’s Rajesh Kumar told The Wire.Also read: Telangana SIR: CM Revanth Reddy Writes to CEC Gyanesh Kumar as Over 73 Lakh Voters Marked ‘Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate’He added that video clips of 15 such forms with printed names and addresses of the voters, but without the names of applicants, went viral on social media on October 3, which attracted attention of his party colleagues. This happened after the fiasco at Musheerabad regarded the alleged attempt to remove Congress BLA Sharfuddin and his family from the voter roll using Form 7.Rajesh Kumar alleged that the BJP circulated pre-printed forms to its BLAs through its network of constituency in-charges and division presidents. The constituency in-charges got the forms, in booth-wise bundles, from the state party headquarters and distributed them to division presidents within constituencies who in turn sent them to BLAs. This was also said in the party’s representation to the Police Commissioner on Monday.The election cell of the Congress party has also raised the matter with CEO Reddy, who assured a thorough scrutiny before voters’ names are deleted.Earlier, Reddy said at a press conference that submitting Form 7 would not lead to removal of a person from the rolls without proper verification. If the elector’s mobile number is linked to his EPIC (Electors Photo Identity Card) number, an SMS alert would be sent to them about the matter.A notice for hearing would also be served to both the objector and the person whose name is proposed for deletion. This would be done in person or via registered post or by affixing a notice at the person’s residence.For our full coverage on the SIR and the issues it has brought to citizens, click here.