Hyderabad: Alleging that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists were attempting to remove names of Muslim voters from electoral rolls by submitting Form 7 during Special Intensive Revision (SIR), All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) President Asaduddin Owaisi has warned of a stir stronger than the one at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.
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Hitting back, Telangana BJP said the AIMIM leader should stop resorting to political rhetoric against the Election Commission and take the legal route if he genuinely possesses evidence of irregularities in the electoral process. Addressing a gathering late on Saturday night, Owaisi said the Election Commission and the Chief Electoral Officer of Telangana should check the alleged attempts to remove the names of voters by submitting printed Form-7. The name of the person submitting Form-7 is not being provided, the Hyderabad MP claimed. Form-7 is a voter application form for objection to the proposed inclusion/ deletion of a name in the existing electoral roll.
"BJP and Sangh Parivar people want to get names deleted by submitting Form 7," Owaisi said. He said the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) should check every Form 7 and find out who is submitting the application for the removal of voters' names. He also alleged that a Booth Level Assistant (BLA) of BJP at Musheerabad in Hyderabad had submitted a form for removal of Muslim voters. The EC should take action if a false Form 7 is presented, he said.
"If this drama does not stop, remember, we will do the 'mantar ' that was not read at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, on the streets of Hyderabad. Then they will have a big problem. We cannot tolerate all names of genuine voters being deleted through Form 7 just because they are Muslims," he said. Asking AIMIM workers to question officials as to who submitted Form-7 applications, he said protests "double, triple of whatever happened in Delhi and Mumbai" would take place in Hyderabad. Claiming that SIR is a wrong exercise, he said the Supreme Court, however, gave a decision in its favour. He asked why there should be a problem if six children are born to a person. He said he has six children.
Owaisi further alleged that the purpose of SIR is to remove names, raise questions over citizenship and then make people stand in queue 'when NRC is conducted tomorrow'.
He said Union Home Minister Amit Shah stated that the NRC would be conducted, while Sunil Ambekar of the RSS favoured it. Dismissing allegations that AIMIM wins elections through bogus votes, he said the party wins through love.
Owaisi, who expressed concern over rising incidents of murders in Hyderabad, said rich people involved in murders are managing to get bail by spending about Rs two crore. It is like a "package" as per which "jail to investigating officer are set", he claimed. He also alleged that the superintendent of a jail in Hyderabad allowed a meeting of murderers in the prison.
Hitting back at Owaisi over his allegations that BJP and Sangh Parivar workers were allegedly filing Form 7 applications to get genuine voters' names deleted, BJP Telangana chief spokesperson N V Subash said a person with a legal background should know that serious allegations against a Constitutional authority cannot be established through public statements alone.
"If Owaisi has concrete evidence of electoral malpractice, what is stopping him from approaching the appropriate judicial forum? Why make allegations in public and stop there? Let him place the evidence before the competent authorities and seek appropriate legal action," Subhash said.
The BJP leader said there was nothing wrong with seeking scrutiny of the functioning of a Constitutional institution in a democracy, but repeatedly casting aspersions on the integrity of the electoral process without producing evidence is a different matter altogether.
He said allegations concerning electoral rolls in Hyderabad, including those raised in the context of the AIMIM's traditional stronghold, should also be subjected to the same scrutiny and legal process.
"If Owaisi has evidence, let him produce it. If he has a grievance, let him pursue the remedy provided by law. But political rhetoric cannot become a substitute for proof, and allegations cannot be allowed to become electoral facts merely by repetition," Subhash said.
