In the midst of the allegation and counter-allegation traded between chief minister Mamata Banerjee and BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya over Form 7, the Election Commission on Tuesday clarified that anybody could submit any number of the form to the assistant election registration officers (AEROs), electoral registration officers (EROs) and the district election officers (DEOs).
“It is true that the booth-level agents (BLAs) of the political parties can submit 50 forms a day to the booth-level officers (BLOs). The BLOs would have handed over the forms to the AEROs. But there is no limit if anybody submits Form 7 to AEROs, EROs, DEOs,” said a senior EC official.
In the past, political parties would submit Form 7 in bundles to the relevant officials, and the forms were processed according to the rules.
“In fact, a few years ago, a political party had submitted 20,000 Form 7 to the CEO's office in Calcutta, objecting to the inclusion of names of voters spread across the state. The forms were sorted out in the CEO's office and were sent to the EROs concerned for necessary action,” said an official.
Form 7 can be submitted by anybody — from a common voter to political party leaders — to object to the inclusion of one's name in the voter list or to seek the deletion of one's own or any other person's name.
Once the forms were submitted, the person concerned against whom the objections are raised would be called for a hearing. During the hearing, the voter concerned would need to submit the required documents to prove their eligibility for inclusion in the electoral rolls.
“But the problem is that if any voter misses two dates given for a hearing, his or her name would be deleted from the electoral rolls. The political parties often take this opportunity to delete the names of the supporters of their rival parties. The tradition has been continuing since the Left Front regime,” said a source.
Controversy over Form 7 erupted after the chief minister raised questions over the BJP's attempt to submit Form 7 on a large scale at several places in the state.
“But this practice had been adopted by all the political parties in the past. This time, the ruling party is worried because it is not sure if hearings of such voters would be possible at a time when 72 lakh unmapped voters and voters with logical discrepancies in their enumeration forms were being called for a hearing,” said an official.
Sources in Trinamool said that they were not sure what would happen if the EC failed to hear voters against whom Form 7 would be submitted.
“The hearing and verification of documents would have to be completed by February 7. As hearings for more than 40 lakh voters with logical discrepancies in the enumeration forms have not started yet, it is almost certain that the EC would not be able to complete the hearing of voters against whom the BJP is submitting Form 7. In that case, we apprehend that their names would be deleted without hearing,” said a Trinamool leader.