Yediyurappa demands Karnataka police stop filing FIRs over Form 7 voter deletions

A bitter political dispute over the revision of Karnataka's electoral rolls has escalated after a high-profile BJP delegation, led by former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, demanded an end to police investigations against its party workers.

The clash centres on the submission of "Form 7" applications, which are used to object to names on the electoral roll or to request their deletion. While the ruling Congress accuses the BJP of using the system to systematically purge minority and Dalit voters, the BJP maintains that filing the forms is a completely legal right.

Why is the BJP protesting to the police?

Yediyurappa, accompanied by BJP state president B.Y. Vijayendra and Assembly opposition leader R. Ashoka, met the state's Director General and Inspector General of Police, M.A. Saleem, on 3 October. The delegation handed over a memorandum warning that the state police force was being used as a political tool by the Congress government.

The BJP argued that Form 7 is a statutory tool provided by the Election Commission of India for cleaning up electoral registers. The delegation maintained that simply submitting multiple or bulk applications does not constitute a criminal offence. They claimed that the police are registering cases under political pressure without any evidence of actual fraud or forgery.

Speaking after the meeting, R. Ashoka warned that if police officers continued to misuse their power, they would "have to regret it later" once a change of government occurred.

Where are the police cases being filed?

Despite the BJP's protests, police in several districts have registered criminal cases under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita following complaints from Congress booth agents and local residents.

• Belagavi: Police booked former BJP candidate Ravi Patil and 25 others. A local booth agent filed a complaint alleging they used forged documents to try to delete 198 Muslim voters from the rolls.
• Bhalki (Bidar): An FIR was registered against 32 people after a local businessman complained that 3,244 voters, including himself, were falsely marked as "shifted" or "absent" on Form 7 applications.
• Mysuru: Police booked local BJP leaders, including the party's minority president Anil Thomas, after a social worker complained of a conspiracy to strike his family and other community members off the register.
• Ballari: An FIR was registered following a complaint over the alleged submission of 7,561 voter deletion applications.

The political fallout

The police action was triggered by a dramatic six-hour sit-in demonstration on 1 October by Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and his cabinet colleagues outside the office of the Chief Electoral Officer in Bengaluru. The Congress accused the BJP of fabricating documents to execute a mass deletion of eligible minority, Dalit, and backward-class voters.

The BJP has hit back by demanding its own legal action. R. Ashoka submitted a petition to the Bengaluru City Police Commissioner seeking an FIR against Shivakumar and other ministers. He argued that the Congress leaders' protest violated a High Court order banning demonstrations outside designated areas like Freedom Park, accusing the ruling party of staging the protest to protect illegal voters.

With tensions rising, election officials have tightened the rules. Tahsildars have been instructed not to approve Form 7 deletions unless there is an official death certificate or clear evidence of duplicate registration elsewhere, requiring physical verification before any voter is removed.