Ahmedabad, Feb 13 (IANS) The Gujarat Congress has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Election Commission of collusion.
The State Congress, on Thursday, described the alleged actions as a “well-planned conspiracy” aimed at depriving lakhs of genuine voters of their voting rights.
The party cited what it termed large-scale discrepancies in the number of Form-7 objections submitted and processed.
Addressing a press conference in Ahmedabad, Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee President Amit Chavda questioned the shifting figures released by the Election Commission regarding Form-7 applications, which are used to object to names on the electoral roll.
“The Election Commission first said 12,59,229 Form-7 objections were received, then stated more than 9.50 lakh forms were received, and finally announced that 1,83,235 objections were received. Why are these figures changing?” he asked.
Chavda alleged that until January 15, very few Form-7 applications had been submitted, despite the deadline of January 18 for objections to allegedly bogus voters.
“This was not a miracle overnight. Under a well-planned conspiracy, an attempt was made to snatch the voting rights of lakhs of genuine voters,” he said.
Referring to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) draft electoral list published in December 2025, Chavda claimed that around 74 lakh voters had been deleted in Gujarat.
He also cited the Navsari Lok Sabha constituency, alleging that more than 12 per cent of voters in the state — nearly 62 lakh — were marked as suspicious.
The Congress leader asked how BJP workers allegedly obtained printed Form-7 applications in large numbers and under whose authorisation they reached the party’s Kamalam office.
He demanded disclosure of who submitted bundles of forms to the Election Commission and called for the release of CCTV footage from election offices.
“In some cases, people were unaware that forms had been submitted in their names. There are instances of forged signatures and incorrect addresses,” he alleged.
Chavda also said that filing false Form-7 applications constitutes a criminal offence and called for action against those responsible, including election officials, if found complicit.
“Those who attempted to deprive citizens of their voting rights will not be spared,” he added.
Citing district-wise data following the February 10 verification deadline, he said that “in Anand, 69,057 Form-7 applications were received but only 747 accepted; in Kheda, 1,35,174 were received and 1,025 accepted; and in Bharuch, 91,169 objections were received with 804 accepted”.
He claimed this showed that between 95 and 99 per cent of the objections were rejected.
Chavda said the Congress would approach the Supreme Court if necessary to challenge what it termed an attempt to undermine electoral rights.
–IANS
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