Ground Report | In Odisha’s Bhadrak, Muslim Voters Ask Who Are Filing the Form 7s to Delete Them

Bhadrak (Odisha): “I am 85 years old and have been voting for many years. Now I am being told that I supposedly do not live here – that, in fact, I have no existence here at all.” A frail, ailing body, trembling hands clutching his Aadhaar and voter ID cards, Mir Alam Gir from booth number 174 of Bhadrak municipality, in Bhadrak Assembly constituency, Odisha, lamented as he recounted his struggle to find his name on the electoral roll during the special intensive revision (SIR).

“The person who submitted Form 7, seeking to have my name deleted from the electoral rolls, is just 27 years old. He does not even live in my neighbourhood – he lives nearly 20 miles away. How could he possibly know whether I am still living here, have moved elsewhere, or whether I have died? This is how the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) is trying to remove the names of Muslim people in Odisha from the electoral rolls in the name of the SIR,” he alleged.

In his trembling voice, he continued that to protest against this injustice and humiliation, a few voters like him had gone together to Bhadrak police station where they lodged a written complaint against the people they accused of falsely submitting Form 7 applications to deprive them of their right to vote. “But police administration has taken no action,’’ he said, “We are living each day in a state of deep uncertainty, not knowing whether our names will remain on the electoral rolls or whether we will be stripped of our right to vote.”

Mir Alam Gir, 85, a resident of Banka mohalla in Bhadrak, shows his Aadhaar and voter card. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee

The SIR of electoral rolls in Odisha began in June. Bhadrak district has the highest Muslim population by percentage, at 6.92%, among Odisha’s districts, and has the second highest in absolute numbers.

The Wire travelled to several parts of the Bhadrak district to examine the ground reality of how the exercise was being carried out and what it meant for voters. During this field visit, several towns in the district revealed the same unsettling feeling that Gir spoke about.

The same questions kept resurfacing, village after village: “Will we be able to vote? Or, like in Bengal, will some of us be placed under scrutiny and effectively left uncertain about our right to vote in the name of Logical discrepancies?”

Why are Odisha’s Muslim minorities living in fear?

In absolute numbers, Cuttack has the largest Muslim population –  1,42,263 – among all districts, though it accounts for 5.38% of the district’s population. Bhadrak comes next, with 1,04,202 Muslim people, who constitue for 6.92% of the district’s population.

A large section of Bhadrak’s Muslim population comprises poor families, daily-wage workers and migrant labourers – people whose livelihoods often depend on precarious and informal employee.

The BJP won from Bhadrak Assembly constituency in the last state election in 2024. Many residents in the constituency attribute the BJP’s victory, at least in part, to the division of votes between the Congress and Biju Janata Dal (BJD).

“Just days after the SIR exercise began in Odisha in June, we came to know that Form 7 applications had been filed against the names of a large number of genuine voters living in several Muslim-populated areas of Bhadrak Assembly constituency. The applicants claimed that these individuals no longer lived at the addresses listed, effectively seeking the deletion of their names,” Byomkesh Ray, BJD president of Bhadrak district, told The Wire. 

Voters of Bhat mohalla showing their documents. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee

Ray pointed out that booth level officers (BLO) had already conducted their SIR survey in these areas.

Yet, he said, their field verification records contained no information suggesting that these voters were absent or had left their residences. “If the BLO found no such evidence during their door-to-door verification, where did those filling Form 7 applications get this information from?” Ray asked.  

The question has become particularly significant in Bhadrak’s Muslim-majority localities; where residents say the electoral-roll revision has triggered anxiety over whether their names will remain on the voters list.

“We raised the issue before the sub-collector of Bhadrak, Saurav Chakroborty, and placed our concerns before him in specific terms. But we did not receive any clear or satisfactory explanation,” Ray alleged.

Bhadrak municipality chairperson’s response

A few days ago, The Wire met Bhadrak Municipality chairperson Gulmakhi Dalawzi Habi, a BJD leader, to seek her response to the SIR exercise. She said that in the 15 Muslim-majority wards under the Bhadrak municipality, nearly 200-300 Form 7 applications had been submitted seeking the deletion of voters’ names.

“When the SIR exercise began, everyone cooperated with the process. The BLOs went door to door and conducted their surveys. There were no problems anywhere, and they submitted their reports accordingly. It was only afterwards that we came to know that Form 7 applications were being filed against the names of a large number of minority voters, apparently seeking to have their names deleted from the electoral rolls,” she said.

According to Habi, the addresses of these voters were incorrect. She also questioned the manner in which the applications were prepared. “Form 7 applications are supposed to be filed handwritten. But in these cases, everything has been typed on a computer,’’ she said. 

Habi suspected that the applications had been prepared from the BJP office and that the exercise was deliberately targetted at Muslims. She claimed that, following the Form 7 submissions, the administration had been putting pressure on BLOs to investigate the cases and submit reports. 

“This is a grave insult to the people of Bhadrak’s Muslim community,’’ she said, adding that the matter had already been brought to the attention of the district collector.

Fear, anger and uncertainty among Bhadrak’s voters

The Bhadrak municipality has 30 wards, 15 of which have a Muslim majority. The Bhadrak town has around 90,000 voters, including more than 40,000 from the Muslim community. Of the municipality’s 140 polling booths, Muslims constitute the larger share of the population in 51 booths.

The district municipality is currently governed by BJD. Traditionally, Bhadrak has maintained a sense of communal harmony among people belonging to different religious communities.

Residents of Banka mohalla under ward 26 of Bhadrak constituency showing their voter cards. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee

However, a large section of the Muslim population in the town, however, comprises poor and working-class people, including daily-wage earners who used to live in a relatively peaceful social environment, but whose concerns began with the SIR exercise. The attempt to delete their names rom the rolls has left many feeling deeply humiliated and insecure about their rightful status as the country’s voters.

Several residents said they had heard about the contentious procedure followed during the West Bengal SIR. Their fear is now that a similar process was unfolding in Odisha. 

Protest for right to vote

Some residents have even taken to the streets, determined to fight to protect their names on the electoral rolls and their right to vote. On August 13, Bhadrak district was hit by floods. Even now, it rains almost every day. Amid the scatter showers and the lingering effects of floods, residents of wards 25 and 26 of Bhadrak launched a protest to voice their anger and frustration over the SIR exercise.

Sharima Bibi, a homemaker from Mira Mohalla in ward number 26, said that residents had been voting from the area for decades without facing any such problem. “We have been voting here for a long time. We have never face any problem before. But ever since the BJP came to power in Odisha, Muslims have been subjected to one problem after another. Now they are trying to delete our names from the electoral rolls,’’ she alleged. 

Residents of Mira mohalla showing their voter card. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee

Sharima said her parental home is in Uluberia, West Bengal, and that she had closely followed the SIR exercise there. “I know what happened to people during the SIR in Bengal and how names were deleted from the voter list. They want to do the same thing here,’’ she said.

Sheikh Sahil Quaderi, councillor of the 25 number ward, told The Wire that people with no connection whatsoever to the locality had submitted objection applications containing what residents alleged were false information about voters.

Councillor of ward 25, with residents Sheikh Sahil Quadry and Sayed Mohammad Ali and Sheikh Nasim Sardar. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee

“People are having to stop their work and run from one office to another for days. Carrying documents and other evidence to establish their identity and residence,’’ he said. 

Syed Mohammad Ali, a resident of the area, alleged that two BJP workers, Ganesh Pati and Pratab Bari, who live nearly 20 kilometres away, had submitted Form 7 applications against residents of the locality, seeking to deprive them of their right to vote.

Residents of Mira mohalla showing their voter card. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee

Similar allegations were voiced by numerous women of different ages in Banka Mohalla of ward 26. These included Salamun Bibi, Zohra Bibi, Sakila Bibi, Fatema Bibi and Saheda Bibi, among others. “This is a huge humiliation for us. We want justice,’’ Fatema Bibi said.

Standing among them, Nasiruddin Khan added that there had been no problem with the SIR process initially. “But the BJP has deliberately adopted this method to remove the names of people from the Muslim community from the electoral rolls’’ he alleged.

Salmun Bibi, Johara Bibi, Sakila Bibi, Fotema, Saheda Bibi residents of Banka mohalla under ward 26 of Bhadrak municipality showing their voter cards. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee

For some families, the controversy has taken a severe emotional toll. Kamrun Bibi, a resident of Mira Mohalla, said her husband, Soleman Khan, fell seriously ill and had to be admitted to hospital after the family learnt that a Form 7 application had been filed against him for seeking deletion of his name.

A similar incident took place in the same neighbourhood with Sheikh Adam. After his family learnt that a Form 7 application had allegedly been filed seeking removal of his name, he said his 108-year-old father, Sheikh Shamsuddin, fell seriously ill.

Sheikh Adam and his 108-year-old father Sheikh Samsuddin at Mir Mohalla of Bhadrak. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee

Sheikh Kalam and Kalimuddin Khan, residents of Bhat Mohalla, said they too were facing attempts to remove their names from the electoral rolls without justification.

Nasiruddin Khan said the matter had also been brought to the attention of the police. But no action had followed. “We want the people responsible to be dealt with according to law,” he told The Wire.

‘Form 7 came from BJP office’

Several residents alleged that the Form 7 applications had been prepared and submitted from the BJP office of Bhadrak, pointing to what they described as a striking similarity in the applications: the voters’ names and residential addresses were correctly mentioned, but the post office mentioned Bhubaneswar, which is more than 100 kilometres away from Bhadrak.

According to the residents, this suggests that the applications may have been prepared collectively through computer-based publishing and submitted in bulk. 

The allegation, however, couldn’t be verified at the time by The Wire. It also remains to be investigated by the authorities.

Nasiruddin Khan alleged that, in Bhadrak municipality alone, nearly 5,000 voters from Muslim majority booths had been targeted through Form 7 applications. According to him, BJP leaders and workers systematically filled out Form 7 applications falsely claiming that these genuine voters were no longer residing at their registered addresses, in an attempt to have their names deleted from the electoral rolls.

BLOs hassled

BLOs have allegedly been directed to revisit the homes of these voters to conduct fresh inquiries. Several BLOs, according to residents, have already indicated that the information in most of the applications is incorrect. Yet, they allege, the verification exercise continues, forcing both BLOs and the affected voters to go through repeated rounds of scrutiny.

For many of the poor Muslim families in Bhadrak, the SIR exercise has, therefore, become more than a bureaucratic verification process. It has turned into a daily struggle to prove that they live where they have alway lived – and that they still have a right to remain on the electoral roll and cast their vote.

When The Wire contacted Bhadrak Superintendent of Police (SP) Majoj Raut about the allegations, he said that the matter was being looked into by the district sub-collector. Asked specifically what action had been taken by the police administration against those accused of providing false information in the Form 7 applications, he did not respond.

Residents of Bhat mohalla in Bhadrak constituency. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee

Bhadrak sub-collector Saurav Chakrobarty, meanwhile, told The Wire that the administration was looking into the matter and assured that there would be no problem.

However, on the ground, the assurances have done little to ease the anxiety among voters as they wait for September 21, when the final electoral roll is scheduled to be published. Thousands of voters in Bhadrak say they are living with a deeply unsettling question: Will their names still be on the electoral roll when the final list is published?

BJD submits memorandum to CEO

A delegation of the BJD's state minority cell presented a memorandum to Odisha's chief electoral officer in Bhubaneswar noting the party's concern over the alleged misuse of Forms 7.

The delegates demanded that all Forms 7 submitted after the conclusion of the claims and objections period on August 19 be especially scrutinised; that instances of bulk form submissions be noted; and that election authorities identify any "unusual or disproportionate pattern" in form submissions in areas with significant minority populations.

A delegation of the BJD's minority cell meets the Odisha CEO on September 2, 2026. Photo by arrangement.

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