Bengaluru: The number is 61,059. That is how many Form-7 applications seeking the deletion of names from Karnataka's electoral rolls were filed by election officials themselves, and not one of them records a reason — a mandatory field under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
Electoral Registration Officers and Assistant EROs appear as the objectors in these applications. They say the system generated the forms automatically, with their digital signatures attached, when voters could not be reached during hearings on notices issued for "no mapping" or "logical discrepancies". Such voters were then marked "ineligible".
The effect is unusual. The same election machinery raised the objection and decided whether the voter should stay on the roll. Under Rule 17, any claim or objection not lodged within the prescribed period and in the prescribed form and manner "shall be rejected by the registration officer".
Officials say they were told to file Form-7 where a voter had shifted, held a duplicate entry elsewhere, was underage, had died or was not an Indian citizen. Because the forms were auto-generated, the reason was left blank. With nothing on record, neither the voter nor anyone reading the roll can tell why a name was marked for removal, or check whether the removal was justified.
The timing is stark. Between August 24 and September 23, the claims and objections window, only 192 such applications came in. Between September 24 and October 22, more than 60,800 were filed. On October 22, the last day for disposing of claims and objections, officials filed 10,105. The day before, 10,314. On October 17 and 19, the numbers were 11,132 and 11,760.
BBMP South district recorded the most: 10,374 of its 17,491 applications came from officials. In Bommanahalli Assembly constituency, officials filed 4,095 of 5,757. The pattern of officials out-filing voters and third parties appears in at least 26 constituencies.
Karnataka's final electoral roll is to be published on October 27. Only claims and objections received by September 23 were to be considered for it. Yet sample checks found that names cited in applications filed after the deadline had already been deleted.
More than 1.07 crore names were removed from the draft roll during the Special Intensive Revision, most on grounds of permanent shifting or being marked absent.
Between September 24 and October 22, the Chief Electoral Officer's office reported 1,70,442 Form-7 applications, but the consolidated Form-10 records on the Election Commission's website held only 1,56,634 — a gap of 13,808.
Ten FIRs have been registered over bulk Form-7 filings. Chittapur, where 40 applications by one elector were rejected, is the first to invoke Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.