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........

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