Bengal BJP seeks extension of Form 7 submission date, accuses TMC of trying to derail SIR

Kolkata, Jan 19 (PTI) The BJP on Monday urged the Election Commission to extend the date of submission of Form 7, meant for raising objections to entries on the voters’ list, by at least a week for West Bengal's electors whose names were missing in the draft rolls.

Monday is the last day to submit Form 7.

The saffron party also charged the ruling TMC of pressurising poll panel officials of the state so that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process is derailed.

A BJP delegation met the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal and alleged poll officials are "stonewalling attempts" at submission of Form 7 by either leaving their offices or claiming administrative preoccupation.

"This is to bring to your kind notice the grave and unprecedented situation that continues to prevail in West Bengal during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls with regard to the submission of Form 7 by eligible electors.

"Contextually, it may be mentioned that the Election Commission of India had issued clarification regarding submission of Form 7 in connection with SIR, 2026 in West Bengal, which was in turn forwarded to all District Election Officers (DEOs) dated January 16 for compliance," the BJP said in a letter to the CEO.

Emphasising that the EC categorically stated that there are no restrictions on the number of Form 7 to be filled/ submitted by an elector of that constituency as per law," the BJP claimed that repeated efforts of eligible electors to submit Form 7 have failed.

"The officials are stonewalling the attempts at submission by leaving office or claiming administrative preoccupation, or worse, plainly refusing to accept the Form 7. It is accordingly requested that compliance with the Commission's instructions may please be ensured," the letter read.

The saffron camp had earlier alleged that TMC workers also resisted the submission of the Form 7. The ruling party, on the other hand, claimed that BJP workers were caught transporting bulk Form-7 applications used to seek deletion of names from electoral rolls on grounds such as death or relocation.

In the meantime, "to allow submission of Forms 7 the deadline for submission of forms for claims and objections may be extended by at least a week," said the letter, signed by BJP leaders Pratap Banerjee, Sanjay Singh and Tapas Roy.

Banerjee accused the TMC of forcing the DEOs not to help eligible voters complete the Form 7 submission process smoothly for what he called its narrow political gains, as the ruling party had been sailing through a high number of bogus voters in previous elections.

In a related development, BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya said that his party will not allow elections if a single eligible voter's name is left out following the SIR, and wanted the ECI to ensure that every DEO functions independently. PTI SUS NN