Five men in five Uttarakhand assembly constituencies filed 6,500 objections to strike voters off the rolls in the ongoing special intensive revision. Every name they targeted is Muslim. Each of the five is linked to the BJP.

They are the five highest-volume objectors across the state’s 70 constituencies, a Newslaundry analysis found, with individual tallies of applications running from 230 to 4,855. In three of the five, one objector accounted for between 49 and 99 percent of every deletion request filed in that constituency. 

The norms meant to contain bulk applications have been taken apart in stages. The Election Commission’s 2023 manual on electoral rolls permitted a booth level agent to file applications “not exceeding 10, in a day”. Ahead of the SIR in several states last year, the EC lifted the ceiling to 50 a day. But in January this year, a letter to the West Bengal CEO issued for that state’s revision removed the cap entirely, with the caveat that more than five forms from a single objector would trigger a mandatory review. The same EC clarification was cited by at least two electoral registration officers among the five constituencies analysed by Newslaundry.

All these objections in Uttarakhand were received in the claims and objections round, which concluded on August 13. It will be followed by a notice period running to September 11 before the final roll is published on September 15. The EC had published the draft roll on July 14 with 71.3 lakh names, down from 79.6 lakh.

Kichha: 99% from one objector

In the Kichha assembly constituency of Udham Singh Nagar district, 4,857 objections were filed, 4,855 of them from just one man: Rajesh Tiwari, whom a report in the Hindustan identifies as a BJP booth level agent. 

Most of Tiwari’s applications cite the same ground – “already enrolled”. 

Tiwari could not be reached for comment. However, former BJP MLA from Kichha, Rajesh Shukla, was quoted in the Hindustan report as saying that an internal review conducted by Tiwari across booths found that the Kichha roll allegedly carried over 8,000 duplicate voters also registered in the neighbouring Uttar Pradesh districts of Bareilly, Pilibhit and Rampur.

Kichha has roughly 28.4 percent Muslim electors, more than double the community's share of the state’s population. In 2022, Congress’s Tilak Raj Behar took the seat, defeating Shukla, a two-time MLA, with a margin of over 10,000 votes.

Raees Ahmad’s name is among those listed in Tiwari’s objections, citing “shifted” as the reason. Ahmad was accorded the status of a minister in the Harish Rawat government. He said, “I am around 60 years old and was born here. I have contested the panchayat elections twice and was a state minister in the Harish Rawat government.”

“There are around 45,000 to 50,000 Muslim voters in our constituency, and the BJP lost this seat in the last election. They want to remove Muslim voters from the electoral roll. This is being done by former BJP MLA Rajesh Shukla and his associates. They think they will lose the election, which is why they are submitting the names of Muslim electors for deletion. As of now, I have not received any notice, and the BLO has also not informed me.”

Gadarpur: 670 objections in a seat won by 1,120 votes

Gadarpur, also in Udham Singh Nagar, recorded the second-highest single-objector tally in the state. Chankit Huria filed to remove 670 names, all Muslim – roughly 49 percent of the 1,370 deletion requests the constituency received.

Huria’s Facebook profile lists a string of local BJP posts: district vice president and district secretary for Kashipur, and city president for Gadarpur, alongside numerous posts featuring him with party leaders.

He told Newslaundry: “As the BJP’s BLA-1, I submitted a list of around 900 voters. Since our assembly constituency borders Uttar Pradesh, our research revealed that these individuals are registered as voters in both states. We have requested the deletion of these duplicate entries and submitted an application to the local ERO (SDM), who is currently reviewing the matter.”

BJP’s Arvind Pandey won Gadarpur for a third time in 2022 by 1,120 votes – a margin that had collapsed from 14,106 in 2017. The seat has 21.5 percent Muslim electors, with Scheduled Castes at 11.34 percent and Scheduled Tribes at 7.7 percent, as per the 2011 Census.

Khatima: Seat lost by Dhami

Khatima produced the third-largest single tally. Of 394 deletion requests filed in the constituency, 392 came from Amit Kumar Pandey, or 99 percent. 

As per videos posted on his Instagram profile and media reports, Pandey is the BJP’s district vice president in Khatima and a booth level agent for the party there. He could not be reached for comment.

This is Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami’s traditional seat, which he won in 2012 and 2017. In 2022, Congress’s Bhuwan Chandra Kapri defeated the sitting chief minister by 6,579 votes; Kapri went on to become Deputy Leader of the Opposition and, this month, chairman of the state Congress manifesto committee. Dhami returned to the assembly through a bypoll from Champawat.

According to an Indian Express report, the BJP is micro-monitoring the 23 seats it lost in 2022. Khatima is on that list, and the seat is assigned to Dhami himself. He visits his hometown constituency frequently. It has around 8 percent Muslim electors.

Nanakmatta: 353 requests, one reason

Nanakmatta, carved out of Khatima in 2012, is reserved for Scheduled Tribes, who make up around 36 percent of the electorate, followed by Sikh voters at 19 percent and Muslim voters at 13 percent.

Of the 391 Form 7 applications filed there, 353 – around 90 percent – came from Kishor Joshi, who identifies himself as a BJP BLA and whose name was mentioned in the applications as “Kishar Kumar” due to a “data entry error”. In 351 of Joshi’s applications, the reason given is identical: “Shifted”. 

Joshi said he previously served as district general secretary, mandal president and state secretary of the Yuva Morcha, but that the party has entrusted him with electoral management responsibilities this time.

Joshi claimed the deletion requests stem from large-scale migration from bordering districts of Uttar Pradesh into Uttarakhand, and that he had observed an unusually high rise in voting percentages in Muslim-majority areas over the past two decades. He claimed an internal investigation supported by 142 BLAs of the BJP had found that many of these migrants had enrolled in Uttarakhand without cancelling their UP registrations. He said all his requests are backed by verifiable documentation and that he is prepared to produce it at a formal hearing.

Congress’s Gopal Singh Rana won Nanakmatta in 2022 by more than 13,000 votes, the first time the party took the seat from the BJP. 

Among the names Kishor Joshi has objected to is Arif, claiming that he is in the “absent/permanently shifted” category. However, Arif said, “I have been living here for the last 10 years and also voted in the last election. I submitted my documents in the first phase of SIR. Then, last week, I got a call from the BLO asking for documents related to my mother and father. My father is no more, so I submitted my mother’s voter ID and documents. I didn’t know that my name was listed for deletion. I only found out from you.”

Arif said he is yet to receive any notice regarding the objection.

Also among those the list of objections is Mohammad Kareem and his wife Shafeeqan – one of these objections was filed by Kishor Joshi. The couple’s son Nazim said he “had no idea that their names had been submitted for deletion”. “My father has been living here since before 2003. We also voted in the last election.”

Other than the applications filed by Kishor Joshi, BJP worker Bhuwan Chand Joshi too has filed over 10 objections. Among them is Vahid Hasan, whose brother Iqbal said, “We were both born here. We did not receive any notice. However, my mother received a notice regarding an issue with her name, after which she submitted all the required documents.”

Rudrapur: larger volume of objections

Rudrapur, again in Udham Singh Nagar, received 2,818 deletion requests. The largest single list, with 230 names, came from Sunny Paswan, who is city general secretary of the BJP's SC Morcha in Rudrapur, as per his Facebook profile.

Reached for comment, Paswan said he was a BLA for the BJP. “I have raised objections. Those against whom objections have been filed will have to present their documents to get enrolled,” he said before disconnecting the call.

Four others filed more than a hundred names each, with every name targeted being Muslim. 

Rudrapur has 11.3 percent Muslim electors. The BJP has won this seat in each of the last three elections. In 2022, sitting MLA Rajkumar Thukral was denied a ticket and contested as an independent, winning with a 19,750-vote margin.

What the 2023 manual, form 7 guidelines said

The EC’s 2023 manual on electoral rolls defined a bulk application as one submitted by a person on behalf of several others who are not from the same family. It carved out a relaxation for party BLAs – with applications “not exceeding 10, in a day” – and required each such filing to be accompanied by a “written declaration in format and list of applications”.

As per the manual, if a BLA filed more than 30 applications across the entire claims and objections period, the electoral registration officer (ERO) or the assistant ERO shall “personally” cross-verify the matter.

Form 7 itself requires the applicant to give their name, EPIC number and mobile number, state the purpose and reason for the objection, and identify the challenged voter by name, EPIC number and address. The applicant must declare the information is true. And, critically, the ECI’s form 7 guidelines place the onus of proof for the stated reason on the applicant. “The onus of proof to substantiate the reason given for objection or removal of name lies with the applicant,” states point no. 3.

Responding to questions regarding the bulk applications, Uttarakhand BJP spokesperson Vinod Chamoli said, “Submitting an objection does not result in automatic deletion. Voters are given a full opportunity to verify their records and submit documents to resolve any discrepancies.”

Addressing the issue of potential voter overlap with neighbouring Uttar Pradesh districts such as Rampur and Moradabad, he said that mapping duplicate registrations across state lines is an ongoing process and that only invalid or duplicate entries would ultimately be removed.

Responding to questions about objections targeting Muslim voters, Chamoli said that objections are part of the routine electoral process and that even established public figures have had to submit documents in response to voter list notices. He maintained that the BJP does not operate on a policy of communal exclusion.

Officials point to due verification

Newslaundry reached out to the EROs of each of the five constituencies to ask about the norms governing bulk applications and whether a verification process was being followed.

Gadarpur ERO Amrita Sharma, sent a questionnaire naming Huria and citing the manual’s bulk-application provisions, replied with a screenshot of an ECI letter on the West Bengal SIR which stated that there was no limit on the number of forms an individual may submit. Asked to point to any notification, circular or official document applicable to the Uttarakhand SIR that said the same, she did not respond.

Khatima ERO Tushar Saini said the objector had taken full responsibility for the claims he filed. “Verifying all of them at once was not possible,” he said, “so they were being checked individually and uploaded on the website. A review had been conducted and the objector contacted about his claims. A decision would follow after both parties had been given a proper opportunity to present their case.”

Kichha ERO Gaurav Pandey, asked about Tiwari’s 4,800-plus applications, said the online portal had accepted the submissions and that standard protocol requires cross-verification whenever one individual files a large number. Party-appointed BLAs operate under established guidelines, he said, and every objection will undergo verification, formal hearings and due disposal. Asked about the objections being filed against Muslim voters, he said that in his administrative capacity he could not comment on the community demographics of voters and that his sole duty was to process every claim and objection strictly according to law. 

Initial verification had been done to establish the authenticity of the applicant’s filings, he said, and no deletion would occur without field verification, statutory notices and a hearing for those affected. 

Questions have also been sent to the EROs of Nanakmatta and Rudrapur, and a detailed email to the Uttarakhand CEO regarding these bulk applications and the norms regulating them.

On Thursday, a Congress delegation approached the EC over issues linked to the SIR. Led by MP Selja Kumari, the delegation, which also included Uttarakhand Congress president and Rajya Sabha MP Pawan Khera, submitted a complaint.

The Chief Electoral Officer of Uttarakhand issued a letter to the state Congress president, inviting a delegation of the party to the CEO’s office on Friday to submit its facts and concerns regarding the matter.

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