Who filed 77% Form 7 in Mustafabad, Delhi? BJP BLA named as “objectors” deny them

Individuals named as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appointed Booth Level Agents (BLAs) and listed as ‘rejecters’ in at least 77% of the total 1,021 deletion applications filed so far in Delhi’s Mustafabad constituency have largely denied any connection with the filing of Form 7 of the ongoing special election as part of the SIR. city.

The Hindu contacted all 20 BLAs registered with the BJP, according to Election Commission of India (ECI) records, which are listed as filing 787 Form 7s citing reasons such as ‘absence/permanent transfer’, ‘already enrolled’ and ‘death’, to request deletion of voter names.

All requests are against Muslim voters. A total of 16 of the 20 denied filing or signing any forms since the claims and objections phase began on August 31, 2026. Almost all said they were unaware the forms were being filled out on their behalf.

The 787 applications represent 94% of the 837 deletion applications filed by third parties, according to a publicly available list of Form 7s on the website of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in Delhi. Form 7 is used to request the deletion of existing names from the electoral roll or to object to the inclusion of names.

One such BLA, Ankit Yadav, named as a respondent in 32 Form 7 applications, not only denied filing any of them, but said he had submitted a complaint and formal resignation as BLA to the party representatives.

“I came to know on Sunday that my details were used to search for the deletion of my neighbors belonging to the Muslim community. I know them all and we live as family and friends here in this district which has only a few Hindu households,” he said.

He said the local Booth Level Officer (BLO) asked him if he had received any OTP which is not required for offline submission. “I saw several SMSes that BLOs were assigned to verify the form and there were long reference numbers,” he said. “When I called the local BJP councillor, who occasionally called meetings with party workers, he dismissed my concerns saying I should ignore it and let things be as they were. He said he would take care of it later,” Mr Yadav said.

With the help of the BLO area, The Hindu verified that all the affected voters were living at their registered addresses. The BLO also stated that it did not receive any physical copies of Form 7s. “When I took over the BLA role six months ago, I was told that my job would be to help BLOs and constituents in the area. How can they use my details and pass me off as a ‘fraud’?” asked Mr. Yadav.

The Hindu reported on 30 October 2026 that the BJP BLA had been named as respondents in applications to delete Muslim voters who were found living at their addresses in Mustafabad during the paper’s visit. One of the respondents, Chandra Shekhar Nainwal, named in the petitions relating to 28 Muslim voters, rejected their submission and said he was not associated with the BJP. Four other BLAs said they were no longer associated with the BJP in this capacity.

The 16 BJP BLAs who have refused to file their applications include Neeraj Sharma, who has been named as a respondent in 56 applications so far, Satya Bhama (54), Himanshu (52), Abhishek Mishra (47), Nitin Kumar (40), Ajay Singh Bhati (39), Deshraj (35), Mad3han Raman (35), Kumar (33), Ankit Yadav (32), Sawar Singh (32), Kapil (31) and Gangan Papnai (14).

Mr Sharma said he received a call from the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) office on Tuesday (November 3, 2026) asking him to explain the objections, but he refused to file them. The Hindus had access to several Form 7s, duly filled and signed by the names of BJP BLAs, including Nitin Kumar. While denying filling any form, Mr. Kumar said he received an SMS regarding verification. “That area isn’t even mine where the requests are showing up in my name,” he said.

BJP BLA Robin Singh Dhama, named as respondent in 57 cases, is an exception. He confirmed the submission of Form 7 applications and claimed to have sent “500”. He said: “These people don’t live in the area, so why are they on the electoral roll? I’ve submitted 500 such forms so far.”

The phone number given to BJP BLA Shashi was allegedly a wrong number. A person who answered the number and gave her name said, “I’ve already filed several complaints to have it removed.” Shashi has been named as a respondent in 59 cases, including 10 listed on November 3. Manoj Kumar, named as respondent in 43 applications, and Tribhuvan Dixit, named in 26, could not be reached.

Violation of the EC ceiling

All these objections were received after the European Citizens’ Initiative on 9 October 2026 introduced a limit of 10 Form 7 applications from individual voters during the entire claims and objections period. While BLAs can submit bulk applications of up to 10 forms per day, the provision applies to forms completed by other electors and submitted with the BLA undertaking.

Senior ECI officials had earlier told The Hindu that BLAs filing Form 7 applications in their own name as respondents without undertaking to file collectively are subject to ECI’s October 9 directive. In the directive, the ECI also stated that “in case the ERO finds the complaint to be false/fabricated, action will be taken against the applicant who has knowingly made a false statement or written statement in Form 7 under the provisions of the PO Act”.

The Hindu learned that the forms naming these 20 BLAs as objections were filed without the prescribed BLA undertaking or format prescribed for them.

The District Electoral Officer (DEO), Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi and the ECI did not respond to The Hindu’s queries. In an earlier reply, the DEO said that all deletion requests would be physically verified by the BLO and ERO/Assistant ERO and that action would be taken against those found to be false or “malicious”.

Published – November 4, 2026 10:54 PM IST