Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs on Saturday (February 28, 2026) raised concerns in the Gujarat Assembly over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, including erasure of voters’ names.
During the debate in the State Assembly on the Bill approving the expenditure incurred in this fiscal revision of the Electoral Roll, the Opposition raised complaints about the large number of Form 7 applications, designed to delete names from the Electoral Roll, being filed across constituencies without the knowledge of the voters concerned.
The debate started after the BJP government sought passage of an appropriation bill to legalize expenditure incurred on SIR-related work in the state.
While Speaker Shankar Chaudhary had already allowed two Congress MLAs and one AAP legislator to speak on the bill, Gujarat’s Forest and Environment Minister Arjun Modhwadia raised a procedural objection saying that matters relating to the Election Commission of India (EC) cannot be discussed in the State Assembly.
Citing Article 324 of the Constitution, he said the EC is an autonomous constitutional body responsible for conducting Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections and that the state government has no power to interfere in its processes, including the preparation or revision of the electoral roll.
He argued that while the state machinery performs election-related tasks, it does so strictly under the control of the ECI under the Representation of the People Act.
Matters related to revisions of voter list, EVMs, VVPAT and related matters therefore fall outside the jurisdiction of the state government, Mr. Modhwadia said and urged the Speaker to prohibit discussion on them.
BJP MLA and former Speaker Ramanlal Vora supported the procedural objection, reiterating that though the employees belong to the state, their electoral duties are performed under the direct control of the EC and therefore the Assembly was not an appropriate forum to challenge the processes.
However, Congress and AAP members opposed the move to block the discussion.
Congress MLA Kirit Patel, however, said that while the Legislative Assembly cannot question EC’s independent decisions or matters pending before courts, administrative lapses for which the state government is held responsible must be open for discussion.
Congress MLA Amit Chavda said protecting the constitutional right to vote is paramount in a democracy.
“Since the ground machinery from the booth level officials to the election officers belongs to the state government, this House should look into the errors in the preparation of electoral rolls and other administrative errors,” he said.
Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar argued that since exchequer funds were used for SIR, the assembly had the right to discuss how the money was spent.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the Chair stated that he reviewed past records and found that similar discussions of supplemental requests had been permitted by previous Chairs.
Under Article 324, the ECI is autonomous and the Assembly cannot discuss its statutory and constitutional duties, including the exercise of the SIR, he said in his ruling.
However, Mr. Chaudhary clarified that the members were allowed to discuss the additional requirements and administrative errors of the state machinery involved in the execution of the exercise.
He pointed out that there was a “fine line” between criticizing the administration and attacking the ECI’s autonomy and warned members not to cross it.
After being allowed to speak, AAP MLA Chaitar Vasava alleged that around January 17 and 18, there was a sudden influx of thousands of Form 7 applications in the constituencies to delete the names of registered voters from the rolls.
He claimed that several such applications were submitted without supporting documents and individuals whose names appeared on the forms refused to submit them when contacted by his team.
Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani referred to the constitution drafted by Babasaheb Ambedkar to assert that voting is a fundamental right.
“As part of a pre-planned strategy, an attempt has been made to remove the names of nearly 14 thousand people belonging to a particular community in Gujarat. Such acts will destroy the social harmony in Gujarat. The state government must identify those behind these fraudulent Form 7s, file an FIR and send them to jail,” said Mr. Mevani.
He argued that De-notified Tribes (DNT) and nomadic communities who do not have permanent addresses may lose their voting rights for lack of even a single document.
Congress MLA Amrutji Thakor alleged that the election authorities were not accepting Aadhaar or even EPIC cards as valid documents for entering names in the revised electoral rolls.
On the issue of deletion of names through Form 7, Mr. Thakor said citizens have a democratic right to know who is “actively trying to steal their voting rights by secretly filling these forms against them”.
In his reply, Finance Minister Kanubhai Desai said that Form 7 is the prescribed procedure for deleting a name, but no name is deleted only when it is submitted. Booth-level officers conduct mandatory field verification and hearings are organized if necessary before a final decision is taken, he added.
After a long debate, the Gujarat Appropriation Bill, 2026 was passed by a majority vote. Congress and AAP did not extend their support to the legislation.
Published – March 1, 2026 07:42 IST
