BLOs Shared Details for ‘Verification’: Hundreds of Odisha Voters Nearly Dropped From Electoral Rolls

Odisha voter roll row: BLOs allege credentials used to file Form 7 deletion applications

Several Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in Odisha’s Dhamnagar Assembly constituency have alleged that their credentials were used without their knowledge to upload hundreds of Form 7 applications seeking deletion of voters from the electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).

The allegations have prompted disciplinary action against Santosh Kumar Nayak, the Executive Officer of the Dhamnagar Notified Area Council and the Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) for the SIR exercise. Following a preliminary inquiry, the Odisha government suspended Nayak over the alleged unauthorised use of BLO credentials and OTPs.

The Form 7 applications in question were subsequently withdrawn, and most of the voters named in them were included in Odisha’s final electoral roll released on September 21.

BLOs say OTPs were sought for ‘verification’

Nirupama Tripathy, a BLO in Dhamnagar, said she discovered that at least 227 Form 7 applications had been uploaded using her credentials.

Tripathy, who was responsible for Booth No. 153, said she had shared OTPs with the AERO and his staff on several occasions because she believed they were required for verification.

“I shared OTPs with the AERO and his staff at least three times. I thought it’s for verification purposes,” Tripathy told The Indian Express.

She said she later discovered that the OTPs had allegedly been used to process Form 7 applications seeking deletion of voters.

Tripathy said she and other BLOs subsequently compared notes and found similar instances. Ten BLOs filed a police complaint on September 4 and approached the Bhadrak District Collector. The BJD later submitted a memorandum to Odisha Chief Electoral Officer R S Gopalan on September 7.

Sk Ramjan Alli, a BLO for Booth No. 154, said 130 Form 7 applications had been filed using his credentials. Another BLO, Binjulata Majhi, said 190 applications were filed in her name.

Over 90% of applications involved Muslim voters

Officials said more than 90% of the voters named in the disputed Form 7 applications were Muslim.

Dhamnagar, in northeastern Odisha, is among the state’s Assembly constituencies with a sizeable Muslim population. According to the BLOs, most of the voters whose names appeared in the applications had already been verified during the enumeration process and were also mapped to the 2002 SIR rolls.

The unusually high number of Form 7 applications also raised concerns. More than 3,000 such applications were filed in Dhamnagar, while 20,707 voters were deleted through Form 7 applications across all 147 Assembly constituencies in Odisha — an average of about 141 per constituency.

Inquiry finds applications were processed ‘unauthorisedly’

After the BJD memorandum, the CEO’s office sought a report from the Additional Sub-Collector of Bhadrak, who serves as the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) for Dhamnagar.

An official source said the ERO’s preliminary verification found that the applications appeared to have been processed in an unauthorised manner.

On September 21, the CEO’s office informed the Bhadrak District Collector that the Election Commission had approved Nayak’s suspension and disciplinary proceedings over allegations involving the unauthorised use of BLO credentials and OTPs and the uploading of Form 7 applications.

The Odisha Housing and Urban Development Department subsequently issued the suspension order.

The CEO’s office has also asked the Bhadrak District Collector to submit a detailed draft charge against the AERO and ordered a separate inquiry into his role.

• CEO Gopalan declined to comment on the matter.
• BLOs deny involvement in voter deletions

In their police complaint, the BLOs alleged that the AERO and his staff obtained OTPs from them on the pretext of verification and then used their credentials to submit Form 7 applications.

They also alleged that they were pressured to complete field verification quickly and were threatened with show-cause notices if they did not comply.

Tripathy said the voters whose names appeared in the applications filed using her credentials were genuine voters. Of the 227 names, she said, all but three or four were Muslim.

“We approached police as we wanted to convey that we had no role in deleting any names. We would have been targeted otherwise by those who faced deletion,” she said.

Alli similarly said that more than 90% of the voters named in the applications filed under his credentials had been verified during enumeration and were present in the 2002 SIR records.

Dhamnagar’s electoral roll shrinks during SIR

Dhamnagar had around 2.49 lakh voters when the SIR exercise began, including approximately 20,000 Muslim voters. During enumeration, around 17,956 voters — 7.19% of the electorate — were deleted.

The final electoral roll published on September 21 listed around 2.31 lakh voters.

The constituency has also emerged as a closely contested seat in recent elections. The BJP won Dhamnagar in both 2019 and 2024, defeating the BJD by margins of more than 4,000 and 8,000 votes respectively.

The BJD, which finished second in both elections, has called for a wider investigation into the Form 7 applications.

“If the allegations are proved to be true, it raises a serious question on the credibility of the electoral process,” BJD general secretary Bijay Nayak said. He also called for all Form 7-based deletions in Odisha to be reviewed.

Across Odisha, the total number of voters fell from 3.33 crore before the SIR exercise to 3.16 crore in the final electoral roll.