With Odisha’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR-2026) entering its most sensitive fortnight, the Biju Janata Dal has written to the Chief Electoral Officer seeking an immediate, independent inquiry into alleged irregularities in Dhamnagar Notified Area Council in Bhadrak district.
In a letter received by the CEO, the party says Booth Level Officers engaged in the revision exercise have reportedly lodged a complaint at Dhamnagar Police Station. The complaint, according to BJD, names Santosh Kumar Nayak, Executive Officer-cum-Assistant Electoral Registration Officer of Dhamnagar NAC.
The allegations are serious, and they are still unproven. BJD itself notes that they are “yet to be independently established.” But the party argues that their nature — pressure on BLOs, collection of OTPs, and attempts to delete voters through Form-7 without the prescribed procedure — goes to the heart of the electoral roll’s integrity.
*What Form-7 is, and why it matters now*
Form-7 is the statutory form used to object to a name on the electoral roll and seek its deletion — typically on grounds of death, shifting, or duplicate enrolment. Used correctly, it is a housekeeping tool. Used loosely, BJD has argued for months, it can become a shortcut to remove eligible citizens before the final list is locked.
That lock is close. After the Election Commission extended Odisha’s SIR calendar, scrutiny and disposal of notices run until 17 September 2026. The final electoral roll is scheduled for publication on 21 September 2026. BJD’s letter treats those dates as a hard stop: if questionable deletions go through now, restoring a name later is far harder.
The statewide backdrop is already charged. Draft rolls published in July showed about 20 lakh names identified for deletion after door-to-door enumeration. The opposition has repeatedly claimed that genuine electors were swept out over “minor anomalies,” and it has separately flagged clusters of Form-7 applications in Bhadrak, including Dhamnagar. The new letter sharpens that concern from a general warning into a named officer and a specific urban local body.
*What BJD says happened in Dhamnagar*
According to the party, Nayak allegedly pressed BLOs in Form-7 work, including obtaining OTPs and trying to get names deleted without following the safeguards built into the process. Failure to comply, the complaint is said to have alleged, could invite show-cause notices and other administrative action — pressure that BJD says undermines the independent functioning of booth-level officers.
“A voter’s name cannot be removed from the electoral roll except in accordance with the prescribed law and procedure,” the letter states. Any misuse of Form-7 or circumvention of deletion safeguards, it adds, “can directly affect the democratic rights of eligible citizens.”
BJD wants the CEO not merely to note the complaint but to act before the window closes.
*The ten-point ask*
The party has asked the CEO to order:
1. A time-bound inquiry by an officer of the district administration into the BLOs’ allegations, including whether oral or written instructions were issued and whether they matched electoral procedure.
2. Removal of Nayak from all SIR-2026 and Form-7 responsibilities pending the inquiry, so that he cannot influence BLOs, records or witnesses.
3. Immediate sealing and examination of Form-7 applications, OTP logs, digital records, acknowledgements, BLO reports, meeting notes and related SIR files for Dhamnagar NAC.
4. Case-by-case verification of OTP-based Form-7 submissions, especially where an OTP was obtained or used by someone other than the voter.
5. Re-verification of every voter proposed for deletion or already deleted through Form-7 in the relevant period, with extra care where the elector disputes the deletion.
6. Protection for the complaining BLOs, including the right to depose without the presence of officers against whom they have complained, and a shield against retaliatory administrative action.
7. Interim safeguards so that deletions flagged for serious procedural defects are not given effect until verification is complete.
8. A clear finding on who instructed the BLOs, who handled OTPs, who initiated and who approved the Form-7s, and whether official authority was exceeded.
9. Disciplinary and legal action, if the allegations are established, against every person found responsible, including Nayak, under election law and service rules.
10. A written action-taken report communicated to the complainants.
The letter frames the last two weeks of SIR not as routine paperwork but as a test of whether the machinery will treat BLOs as independent field officers or as instruments of pressure.
*A constituency already in the political crosshairs*
Dhamnagar is a Scheduled Caste Assembly seat in Bhadrak. It is currently held by BJP minister Suryabanshi Suraj, who won the 2024 election. The NAC itself has been a BJD stronghold in civic polls. That mix — a BJP MLA, a BJD-ruled urban body, and a statewide revision that has already dropped millions of names in draft form — is why a local BLO complaint has been elevated to the CEO’s desk.
BJD has also been campaigning against what it calls Form-7 targeting in other parts of Bhadrak, particularly areas with large minority populations. The Dhamnagar letter does not itself allege a communal pattern. It sticks to procedure: OTPs, official pressure, missing safeguards, and the risk that an eligible voter disappears from the roll before 21 September.
*What happens next*
The CEO’s office has received the letter. There is no public response yet on whether an inquiry officer will be named, whether Nayak will be eased off SIR duty, or whether Dhamnagar’s Form-7 and OTP records will be frozen.
Until that happens, two clocks are running at once. One is administrative: notices must be disposed of by 17 September. The other is political: the opposition has put the neutrality of the local electoral machinery on the record, in writing, with a named officer and a police-station complaint in the background.
If the allegations collapse under inquiry, the letter will stand as an opposition intervention that did not stick. If they are borne out, BJD will argue that the warning came just in time — and only just. Either way, the test the party has set is simple: no eligible voter in Dhamnagar NAC should lose the right to remain on the roll because a form, an OTP, or an official instruction skipped the rules meant to protect that name.
