An FIR has been registered against a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Booth Level Agent (BLA) in Hyderabad for allegedly attempting to remove the names of 30 voters from the electoral rolls in the Musheerabad Assembly constituency using pre-printed Form-7 applications. The case was registered on October 6 following a complaint by Musheerabad Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) T Praveen Kumar Reddy. According to the complaint and preliminary verification, all 30 voters named in the applications belong to the Muslim community.

The accused, identified as BJP Booth Level Agent S Balachander, allegedly submitted or attempted to submit 30 digitally pre-printed Form-7 applications seeking deletion of voters from the electoral roll. The applications were brought to Polling Station No. 210 on September 28, according to the FIR. Election officials said the applications were not accepted by the Booth Level Officer (BLO) and the supervisor, who reportedly questioned the bulk submission. Balachander allegedly left the documents at the polling station before leaving the premises.

The Form-7 applications were intended to seek deletion of names from the electoral roll. Such applications are part of the election process and can be used when a voter is believed to be dead, has shifted residence, is enrolled more than once or is otherwise not eligible to remain registered at a particular address. In this case, however, election officials subsequently carried out a field verification to establish whether the voters listed in the applications were actually residing at the addresses recorded in the electoral roll.

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The verification conducted on October 1 found that all 30 voters were living at their respective addresses, according to the complaint. The finding raised concerns over the basis on which their names had been targeted for deletion. The FIR states that the voters were allegedly unconnected to Balachander, who had brought the applications to the polling station. The documents were described as digitally pre-printed forms, indicating that they had been prepared in advance rather than being individually completed during the visit to the polling station.

Following the complaint, Chikkadpally police in the Hyderabad Commissionerate Zone registered a case against Balachander under Sections 217 and 318(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). The provisions cited in the FIR relate to allegations involving the furnishing of false information and cheating. Police also invoked Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, which deals with false statements or declarations in connection with electoral matters. The registration of the FIR means the allegations will now be subject to investigation and does not by itself establish the accused's guilt.

The incident comes against the backdrop of heightened scrutiny of electoral-roll changes, where applications seeking additions, corrections or deletions are required to be examined through the prescribed election procedures. In this case, officials' field verification established that the 30 voters continued to reside at the addresses listed in the electoral roll. The police investigation will determine how the Form-7 applications were prepared, the circumstances in which they were submitted, and whether any false information was knowingly provided in an attempt to alter the electoral roll.

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