Jharkhand SIR again: BJP agent held for mass forms to delete minority voters

A Booth Level Agent (BLA) of the BJP in Jharkhand’s Godda district was arrested following an FIR accusing him of submitting around 200 Form 7 applications seeking deletion of voters’ names, as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state.

The BLA, Vinay Kumar Mandal, is now out on bail. The complainant and the Booth Level Officer (BLO), of Booth No. 231 of Pachrukhi village in Godda block, have both submitted that all the applications by Mandal were in the name of voters belonging to the minority community.

Among the voters whose names were allegedly sought to be deleted from the booth were the BLO, Sajida Bibi, and her husband. The complainant, Mukarram Ansari, is also among the voters of Booth No. 231 against whom Form 7 was allegedly submitted by Mandal.

In his complaint, Ansari said that all the voters against whom Form 7s were submitted by Mandal are genuine voters. Ansari told The Indian Express that Mandal submitted around 200 Form 7s, all relating to voters of Booth No.

231, to the BLO, Sajida Bibi. “When we came to know that our names could be deleted through these forms, we informed senior officials,” he said. According to Ansari, Mandal was subsequently asked to come to the village and questioned about the forms.

Mandal reportedly said the forms had been given to him after a meeting of BJP BLAs. Sajida Bibi confirmed that Mandal had brought around 200 Form 7 applications to her on August 29. The BLO said Mandal handed the forms to her husband, and sought that these be signed and he be given a receipt for the same.

She refused to sign as she first wanted to verify the forms, Bibi said. “I later checked and found they were all Form 7s. There were many names, including my own and my husband's,” she said, adding that all the forms related to Muslim voters.

BLOs are employees of the state government, which is currently headed by a JMM-Congress coalition. Godda Muffasil Police Station Inspector Anand Sah confirmed that a case was registered on the basis of the complaint, and Mandal was arrested on Thursday, and released on bail hours later.

Vinay Mandal told The Indian Express that he had gone to submit the Form 7s to the BLO after he was told to do so, and that Bibi initially agreed to receive the forms and give him a receipt. He was called to Pachrukhi village by Bibi to collect the same on Thursday, Mandal said.

“But I was surrounded by several people and beaten up,” he said, adding that he was kept forcibly from 9.30 am to 1.30 pm, and that a villager intervened to stop the assault. Asked whether he knew that Form 7 was used to seek deletion of a voter’s name from the electoral roll, Mandal said he knew the form could be used to raise a claim or objection before a BLO, and that the BLO would verify the details before taking any action.

While he also admitted that the around 200 forms he deposited had largely Muslim voters, Vinay Mandal said similar forms had been submitted by a BLA in his own village, which he described as predominantly Hindu. Congress district general secretary Akbar Ali, who took up the matter, said that on hearing about the bulk Form 7s, he visited Bibi’s residence.

Local residents then decided to call Mandal and question him, Ali said. “After we called him, police and block officials also reached the spot. The villagers then filed the complaint.” An investigation by The Indian Express earlier showed mass submission of forms by BJP BLAs against voters in Godda district’s Maheshtikri block, a majority of them belonging to the minority community, with the BLOs of at least four booths refusing to accept the forms and registering a complaint.

Subsequently, the District Election Officer ordered a probe into the submission of the forms. Jharkhand Chief Electoral Officer K Ravi Kumar told The Indian Express that BLOs could not refuse to accept the forms, and that any deletion on the basis of Form 7 happens only after a probe.

Former Godda BJP MLA Amit Mandal said the party’s BLA, Vinay Mandal, had been “wrongfully held hostage” by some people, and alleged that there was threat of a lynching-like incident. The BJP leader also claimed the hand of the RJD in the incident, adding: “They did all this wrongfully and forcefully, but despite this what is the result?… No one could even touch my BLA.

I got my BLA out on bail.” The RJD is part of the ruling coalition in Jharkhand. In the last Assembly elections, in 2024, Amit Mandal lost to Sanjay Prasad Yadav of the RJD from the Godda Assembly seat.