Congress creating chaos by spreading misinformation about Form-7: Capt. Chowta

Dakshina Kannada Member of Parliament Capt. Brijesh Chowta on Tuesday accused the Congress of creating chaos by spreading misinformation about Form-7 filed by BJP workers to object over presence of some names in the electoral rolls.

Talking to reporters in Mangaluru, Capt. Chowta, who is also the BJP State secretary, said the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise is a constitutional duty done by the Election Commission (EC) to prepare clean electoral rolls. The SIR is being done to remove voters who are dead, remove double entries, and also remove those who have relocated to a new place. Recognised political parties are involved in this process by allowing party workers as Booth Level Agents-2 (BLA-2) at the booth level. The BLA-2 are legally empowered to file a maximum of 50 Form-7 to the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO).

“Form-7 is just an objection. The ERO inquires and only if it is found that the claim of objector is true the official removes the voter from the electoral rolls”. BLA-2s of the party were discharging their constitutional duty in the SIR process., he said.

The Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, are trying to create chaos by misrepresenting Form-7 as the one filed to delete names of certain people from the electoral rolls. “Mere filing of Form-7 does not lead to removal,” Capt. Chowta said and pointed out at the clarification from the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer that no voter had so far been removed from the electoral rolls on the basis of Form-7.

By holding a protest in front of the office of Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer seeking criminal action on BJP BLA-2s who have filed Form 7, Chief Minister D.K.Shivakumar is guilty of placing hurdles in the SIR, he said.