New Delhi: In February this year, a young man from Uttar Pradesh’s (UP) Sultanpur district came forward with a startling claim: applications bearing his forged signature had been submitted to the local booth-level officer (BLO) seeking the deletion of 26 individuals from his constituency’s electoral roll. Alarmingly, Nandlal Nishad could not read and write, and relied on his thumbprint rather than a written signature.Nandlal’s complaint prompted serious questions about the overall integrity of the special intensive revision (SIR) conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI), with the Samajwadi Party (SP) using his case as an example to allege the poll body’s connivance with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It said the ECI had fraudulently deleted names of opposition voters – specifically voters belonging to Muslim, Dalit and other marginalised communities.SP president Akhilesh Yadav even presented Nandlal before the media in Lucknow, praising his “courage” and presenting him with a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh.Interestingly, the BJP had won the specific constituency under question, Sultanpur Sadar, during the 2022 assembly elections by a thin margin of about 1,000 votes.Eight months after Nandlal’s public disclosure, a criminal case has been registered under the cognisable offences of cheating and forgery, with the chief electoral officer (CEO) of UP finally taking cognisance of the SP’s allegations. A first information report (FIR) was lodged against “unidentified” person(s) on October 24 under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), invoking sections 318(4) (cheating and dishonestly), 336(3) (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 340(2) (using a forged document or electronic record as genuine).In his formal complaint – a copy of which was reviewed by The Wire – Manish Kumar Mishra, a lekhpal (clerical government field officer) and the supervisor for the concerned booth in Sultanpur’s Sultanpur Sadar seat, said that the matter had first come to light on February 1. Media outlets had reported that Form-7 applications, purportedly signed by one ‘Nandlal’, had been submitted seeking the deletion of 26 individuals from the local electoral roll.Form-7 documents allow electors to object to a proposed inclusion or deletion of names from the voter list.Booth number 96 was located at the primary school in Arjunpur within the Jaisinghpur tehsil of Sultanpur district. The FIR noted that Nandlal had publicly stated that he could not read or write, and did not use a written signature. However, the complaint did not note the identity of the individual or entity that actually submitted the forged forms. Thus, as per Mishra’s request, the FIR was registered against “unknown person(s)”.Yadav has, on numerous occasions, publicly accused the BJP of leveraging fraudulent Form-7 submissions to systematically delete names of voters belonging to communities labelled as the ‘PDA’ (Pichda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak). He said the party did so to undermine SP’s prospects ahead of the 2027 assembly elections. Also read: Tracking ECI’s U-Turns on Form 7: In West Bengal, After Allowing Unlimited Objections, ECI Caps Them at 10On February 8, while felicitating Nandlal at a press conference in Lucknow, Yadav alleged that the BJP, in collusion with the ECI, was actively manipulating the SIR exercise. He claimed that the ruling party has been fabricating Form-7 submissions through unidentified or unknown sources. “The Election Commission is acting as an ally of the BJP. The BJP is orchestrating a conspiracy to get the votes of the ‘PDA’ – especially those of minorities – deleted by forging signatures,” he said, adding that a “large-scale fraud” was being executed. Yadav said the BJP had recruited professional private agencies equipped with granular data on polling booths across the state to systematically strike off legitimate voters from marginalised communities. On October 26, UP CEO Navdeep Rinwa said the poll body had investigated the allegations raised by the SP. According to the official investigation report submitted by the district election officer of Sultanpur, Form-7 applications reportedly bearing Nandlal’s forged signatures were submitted to a BLO at booth number 96. However, no action was taken, said Rinwa, as the forms lacked essential details such as the applicant’s full name, EPIC number and mobile phone number.Also read: Nearly One-Third of Form 7 Objections in Delhi SIR Seeking Voter Deletions Not Disclosed Publicly: ReportNevertheless, the BLO’s acceptance of incomplete Form-7 applications without verification was deemed an act of negligence in election-related duties, Rinwa noted. Consequently, he informed that the concerned BLO had been immediately relieved of all election-related responsibilities and that an recommendation to initiate formal disciplinary action against the individual has also been forwarded.The case comes closely after an FIR lodged in Pilibhit against two sub-divisional magistrates and a computer operator that alleges glaring discrepancies in the voter rolls of a constituency. A detailed probe report submitted by Pilibhit’s district electoral officer revealed that widespread irregularities spanned across 10,470 entries in the voter roll.Later, on Tuesday (October 27) night, the UP CEO’s X account responded to The Wire‘s reportage of the Sultanpur incident and reiterated that the 26 Form-7 applications submitted in his name were not processed and did not result in any removals.Rinwa also said that up too 100 people were wrongly removed from UP’s voter rolls in connection with bulk Form-7 submissions during the SIR. “Corrective action to restore the wrongly deleted names to the voter list has already been taken,” he added.Referring to the SP’s allegations that the ECI fraudulently removed the names of marginalised electors, Rinwa stated that his office has “not received a single complaint from either the Samajwadi Party or anyone else regarding the mass deletion of names of their supporters, Muslims, or members of any marginalised community from the voter list”.“During the first half of February this year, the Samajwadi Party submitted a number of complaints regarding multiple attempts at bulk submission of Form-7 applications to remove the names of its supporters. As a result of the quick and effective action taken on those complaints, the issue was fully resolved by February 18,” he said.The 26 Form-7 applications (for the removal of names from the voter list) received by the BLO from Mr Nandlal were never digitised or submitted on ERO-Net. Hence, none of those 26 names was removed from the voter list. An FIR under Sections 336(3), 340(2) and 318(4) of the BNS has already been lodged in this matter at PS Gosainganj, Sultanpur district.It is also informed that, since the completion of the SIR in UP on 10/04/2026, we have not received a single complaint from either the Samajwadi Party or anyone else regarding the mass deletion of names of their supporters, Muslims, or members of any marginalised community from the voter list. During the first half of February this year, the Samajwadi Party submitted a number of complaints regarding multiple attempts at bulk submission of Form-7 applications to remove the names of its supporters. As a result of the quick and effective action taken on those complaints, the issue was fully resolved by 18 February. Two press conferences were organised by this office in February, during which data was presented to the media to explain that the apprehension that mass deletion of names from the voter list had taken place, was misplaced and not supported by facts.The findings of an investigation by The Reporters’ Collective regarding the SIR in UP, reported on the 9th of this month, confirm that, although some attempts at bulk submission of forms to remove voters’ names were made, the number of such instances across the whole of UP was not more than 200, and the number of names sought to be deleted across the state was not more than 5,000. What the report did not mention, however, was that, as a result of such attempts, fewer than 350 names were actually removed from the list. Of those names, no more than 100 were found to have been wrongly removed. Action has been taken or is being taken against those found guilty of any wrongdoing in this matter. Corrective action to restore the wrongly deleted names to the voter list has already been taken. In short, the claim of mass deletion of the names of Muslims, Dalits, etc., from the voter list in UP is not supported by the facts.— CEO Uttar Pradesh (@ceoup) October 27, 2026This story was edited on October 28 with an update on Rinwa’s latest post.For our full coverage on the SIR and the issues it has brought to citizens, click here.