The Biju Janata Dal on Friday walked into the office of Odisha’s Chief Electoral Officer with a pointed warning: the window for claims and objections may have closed on August 19, but, the party says, the fight over who stays on the rolls has not.
A delegation led by BJD vice-president and former minister Pratap Jena submitted a written complaint alleging that Booth Level Agents of the ruling BJP are still filing large numbers of Form-7 applications and pressing for the removal of names the opposition calls genuine and eligible. The party framed the exercise as politically motivated and asked the CEO to investigate complaints from across the state and issue fresh instructions so that no eligible voter is dropped from the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) list.
Party leaders said newspaper reports of missing names had already stirred anxiety. They told the CEO they had gathered booth-level accounts from several Assembly segments, including Balikuda-Ersama, Mahanga, Dhamnagar, Bhadrak, Mahakalapada, Jharsuguda, Patkura and Digapahandi.
The sharpest example they cited was from Bhadreswar Gram Panchayat in Mahanga block. According to the complaint, BJP BLA Fagu Charan Behera recommended the exclusion of 121 voters from the SIR lists of newly formed Booth Nos. 221 and 222. Local voters, BJD said, met the Mahanga Block Development Officer and alleged that the names targeted included members of the minority community. After those protests, the party added, Behera wrote to the BDO asking that the matter be examined and the names restored — a sequence the BJD presented as evidence that the original recommendation was hasty and partisan.
The delegation demanded a full probe into every such complaint and legal action where officials or agents were found to have acted improperly. It also sought clear directions to field officers that post-deadline deletion drives must not continue at the booth level.
Accompanying Jena were MLA Sarada Prasanna Jena, general secretary Bijay Nayak, media coordinator and spokesperson Dr Lelin Mohanty, Tumbanath Panda, Narayan Jena, Jyotsnamayee Parida and Manasi Sundaray.
The CEO’s office has not publicly detailed its response. Election officials typically treat Form-7 objections as part of a statutory process that still requires verification before any name is struck off. BJD, however, argues that the volume, timing and targeting of the latest recommendations amount to an attempt to shrink the electorate after the formal claims period has ended — and it wants the referee, not the players, to decide who remains on the list.
