Four months after it highlighted a large-scale attempt to delete votes in Karnataka's Aland constituency, the Congress on Thursday complained to the Election Commission of similar attempts in several places during the ongoing SIR.

In a letter to the EC, Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal said: "What is worrying and hence requires immediate intervention of the Commission is the fact that media reports and party workers have identified individuals and members belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and found them to be using and relying on the Election Commission's own document, i.e., Form 7, to wrongfully deleted voters from the final electoral roll.

"These actions, if remained unchecked and not taken cognizance of by the Commission, will not only embolden BJP in their efforts to wrongfully gain electoral advantage but will also lead to the disenfranchisement of lakhs of voters, especially those belonging to the backward, marginalised communities, who as per the media reports have been made the target of these deletions and removes through Form 7s."

Venugopal pointed out that in a departure from the procedure established for the deletion of names through Form 7, several plaints are being filed often without the knowledge of those under whose names these are submitted and no action is known to have been taken for submitting these forms under false grounds.

"The pattern/modus as revealed from above-mentioned States is, first, there is generation of bulk, pre-printed objection forms in the Form-7 format prescribed by the Election Commission of India, allegedly through a centralised system. Second, such forms are then used to raise objections en masse against targeted categories of electors, including Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, minorities and senior citizens above 60 years of age.

"Third, these pre-printed Form-7 applications targeting certain categories of eligible electors, are then handed over to Booth Level Officers (BLOs) across multiple Assembly Constituencies in different States through a well-organised mechanism.

"A striking and common feature of these forms is the absence of clear and verifiable particulars of the individual submitting the Form 7."

Venugopal cited reports of these occurrences in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Bengal, Kerala and Assam (where a "special revision" is in progress). Congress units in Gujarat and Rajasthan have formally raised this with election authorities.