PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Dehradun
Pradesh Congress Committee Ganesh Godiyal has written a letter to the Election Commission in which he has registered objection on the deletion of names of voters through Form-VII during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll and the revision process and the need to submit Form-VI for re-inclusion of the deleted names.
He said during pre-SIR, names of 4,53,459 voters were deleted from voter lists. Form VII was automatically generated for all of these cases. He said that the draft electoral roll was published on July 14, 2026, which contained the names of approximately 71.33 lakh voters, of which 2,430,387 individuals were listed as having discrepancies. This included individuals whose records did not match the 2003 voter list. Subsequently, notices were issued to these individuals to prove their eligibility and submit the required documents. As per the commission, Form VII was automatically generated for 97,186 voters whose records were not submitted. The objections in these cases were stated to have been filed by the EROs and AEROs, the main basis being that the individuals had not submitted the required documents, rendering them ineligible. On the basis of such objections, summary action was taken and subsequently the names of such voters were removed from the electoral roll.
Godiyal added that objection in this regard is not limited to the correct or incorrect deletion of a person’s name, but rather to the legality of the process itself through which these names were removed.
He said that Electoral Registration Rules, 1960, provides that an objection against the inclusion of a name in the existing electoral roll or an application for deletion of a name shall be made in Form VII and such objection shall be made by the person whose name is included in the electoral roll.
He added that rules grant the right to object to the person whose name is included in the electoral roll and the ERO and AERO cannot prepare or submit Form VII themselves as an objector merely on the grounds that the voter has not submitted documents.
“Therefore, if the Form VII objections in the 97,186 cases above were generated or submitted by the election officials themselves, the entire process of deletions based on such objections needs to be immediately reviewed,’’ he said.
