The previous BJP government misused Form 7 to delete voters "en masse", ahead of May 2023 Assembly polls, alleges Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge on Thursday. Form 7 is an application for objecting inclusion of the name of the other person, or seeking deletion of one's own name, or seeking deletion of any other person’s name in the electoral roll due to death or shifting.
Kharge said, "The Vote Chori trail in Aland (in Kalaburagi district) is a shocking case of large-scale voter deletion. Ahead of the May 2023 Assembly election, Form 7 was misused under the BJP government to delete voters en masse."
As per Kharge’s claims, an attempt was made to delete at least 6,018 votes using the automated software and fake logins.
"Verification showed 5,994 were forged, only 24 genuine. 2,494 voters were actually deleted before the fraud was caught. Strong Congress booths, especially with Dalit and minority voters, were targeted. In one instance, 12 voters were deleted in just 14 minutes, pointing to a "sophisticated vote chori factory", Kharge added.
In a different case, a 63-year-old woman’s identity was misused to delete the data of twelve voters. Karnataka CID is investigating the case and has sent 18 letters to the Election Commission of India (ECI) seeking IP logs, OTP trails, device IDs, and login details. In this case, the minister said that EC refused to share the data on the same, which raises serious questions.
"Who approved these deletion records? Where is the OTP audit trail? When will deleted voters be restored? Why is ECI refusing to cooperate with CID? Who is the ECI trying to protect? When the fraud is this clear, what more evidence is the ECI waiting for? Whom are they shielding?" he asked.
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