More than 95,000 of the nearly 1.73 lakh Form 7 applications received during Uttarakhand’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls relate to voters who have been marked “ineligible”, according to the state Chief Electoral Officer’s office.
The clarification comes amid scrutiny over the unusually high number of Form 7 applications in the state. Form 7 is used to seek deletion of a voter’s name from the electoral roll.
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According to the CEO’s office, the voters classified as “ineligible” are those who either failed to provide the documents sought during the verification process or did not appear for the hearing, either personally or through a family member.
In such cases, the concerned Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) or Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) marks the voter as “ineligible” on the Election Commission’s online system. A Form 7 application is then automatically generated for deletion, officials said.
The development follows concerns over the concentration of Form 7 applications in four districts — Udham Singh Nagar, Haridwar, Dehradun and Nainital. More than 85 per cent of the 1,30,382 applications reported earlier had come from these districts.
The concentration had prompted questions about the reasons behind the unusually high number of deletion applications. The BJP has attributed the pattern largely to population movement and migration, while the Congress has questioned whether the demographic composition of these districts could have played a role.
Election officials, however, have cautioned against drawing conclusions solely from the number of Form 7 applications. They have pointed out that the figures reflect applications received during the revision process and can also vary depending on the extent to which electoral rolls are scrutinised.
The CEO’s office said the SIR exercise was being conducted in accordance with the rules and in a transparent manner. It also said regular meetings were being held with recognised political parties at the Assembly constituency, district and state levels.
The draft electoral roll in Uttarakhand was published on July 14. The final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on October 3, with the claims and objections process continuing ahead of the final publication.
Importantly, being placed in the “ineligible” category does not prevent a voter from seeking inclusion in the electoral roll later. According to the CEO’s office, such voters can submit Form 6 along with the prescribed documents even after the final roll is published and seek inclusion before the election.
The election authorities have therefore clarified that the Form 7 applications generated during the SIR process do not, by themselves, mean that all the concerned names have been permanently removed from the electoral roll.
The development comes as Uttarakhand’s electoral rolls undergo an intensive review ahead of the next election cycle, with officials continuing to process claims, objections and documentation before the final list is issued.
