How ELECTIONS are being Manipulated in India?

Across the country, thousands of names were removed from the voter list." "And it continues." "Most of the names were removed in booths" "from where BJP got fewer votes." "3 of the names were deleted claiming that the voter was dead." "But they were alive." "40 names were removed from the voter list claiming that their address had changed." "While they were living in the same address." "This is a systematic manipulation of the voter list." "Often these local politicians pressurise the Booth Level Officers." "A person brings hundreds such forms at 8 PM," "and they need to sign these." "Thousands applications to remove thousand names." "Who'll take action against it?" "The next elections are in Delhi,"20th May, 2024. The 5th phase of our Lok Sabha elections. It was voting day in Mumbai. Award-winning documentary film-maker from South Bombay, Simantini Dhuru reached the polling booth to cast her vote. But as soon as it was her turn to vote. She was told that she couldn't vote, Because her name wasn't on the voter list. Quite surprising, because a few months ago, on 18th December 2023, she received her new voter ID card. How could this be? So she went to the Election Commission's zonal office to find out. There an officer checked her name and found that the records showed her as deceased. She found that a person named Keval Shah declared her dead, and had her name struck from the voter list. She had received her new voter card on 18th December and a few days later, on 2nd January 2024, Keval Shah had filed the application claiming her dead. Within 7 days of this application being filed, on 9th January, the Election Commission had deleted her name from the voter list. Without following the proper procedure. She asked how her name could be struck off without a death certificate. Surprisingly, this Keval Shah person, no one knew who he was. They didn't even know whether this person existed or if it was a fake name on the application forms. His supposed address was Malabar Hills, but the exact street, the exact building number none of it was mentioned. There was no phone number either whereas, as per the rules, everyone has to mandatorily give their phone numbers. Friends, the most shocking thing was that this wasn't the only case. Across the country, hundreds of thousands of names were struck from the voter list like this. And it's still happening. There have been several reports that point to this. This is a systematic manipulation of the voter list. There's irrefutable evidence for this. And this manipulation has affected the election result as well. This has directly impacted the recent election. exactly what has happened, what was its impact, and most importantly, what should you do, to protect your right to vote. The next elections will be held in Delhi, so this video is truly important for those eligible to vote in Delhi In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, in Uttar Pradesh's Farrukhabad seat, BJP won with only 2,678 votes. And before the election more than 32,000 names were removed from the voter list. Most of the names struck were from the Aliganj constituency. The area with 30% Yadav and Muslim voters. News Laundry investigated this issue. It was found that in January, before the elections, in Aliganj, BJP MLA Satyapal Singh Rathore, wrote a letter to the district administration, and raised concerns about 'bogus voters.' That letter led to the removal of 277 names from Aliganj's voter list. These booths had voters from the Yadav, Shakya, Jatav, and Muslim communities. When News Laundry talked to the people living there, they said that they weren't given any opportunity to be heard. Some said that they weren't even given a notice. And some who received a notice, said that it was in English. Most of them were villagers who don't understand English. When they talked to the BLO there, 2 Booth Level Officers said that they were under "immense pressure" to delete names after the BJP MLA's letter. Booth 208's BLO was Shikha Yadav, she said that she was under a lot of pressure, And she was obligated to remove names from the voter list. She claims that after the BJP MLA's letter, the district officials called meetings till 10 PM, to warn them that if there was no action on the MLA's letter, they'd lose their salaries. Coincidently, the booths that with the most names removed, were the ones from where BJP received low votes in the previous elections. For example, in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh's Assembly Elections, at Booth 208, Samajwadi Party received 426 votes, and BJP got 181 votes. At Aliganj's Booth 208, 12% of the names were removed. And at Booth 140, 9% of the names were removed. At Booth 193, 9.5% of the names were struck down. Most of the voters there are from Muslim or Dalit communities. News Laundry's journalists talked to the people there, conducted a door-to-door survey. It was found that among the voters whose names were removed, at least 15% of the names weren't supposed to be deleted. Of them, 3 names were deleted claiming that these voters were dead, but they were alive. 40 names were removed claiming that their address had changed, while they were living in the same address. These people didn't even receive any notice after the removal of their names. I'll talk about the correct procedure later in this video. Overall, among Aliganj's 395 booths, the deletion rate was high at 53 booths. Combined, from all these booths, Samajwadi Party had received almost 3,800 votes more than BJP. It's clear that had these names weren't removed, BJP had a high chance of losing this Farrukhabad seat. When Farrukhabad's Electoral Registration Officer Jagmohan Gupta was asked about this issue, he claimed that the notices were duly dispatched and that these are false allegations. They had sent the notices but people didn't show up. But friends, this isn't about just this seat. We saw similar instances in Meerut's Lok Sabha seat too. BJP had won this seat with only 10,585 seats. But before the Lok Sabha elections, 61,365 names were removed from the voter list. This shows the same pattern, the areas with the most names struck, were the areas where BJP was predicted to get fewer votes. Meerut Cantonment Assembly Segment, here 30% of the voters were from Muslim or Dalit communities. Here, 16,521 names were struck off. This is 3.8% of the Assembly's total votes. You'll understand the significance of this percentage later. In Hapur, nearly 3.2% of the names were deleted. More than 50% of the population in this area is Muslim or Dalit. And across other parts of Meerut, the deletion rate was below 3%. Friends, this issue isn't limited to removing the names of eligible voters, this extends to fake votes too. News Laundry surveyed 3 booths from Meerut Cantonment Assembly Segment; Booths 286, 304, and 305. In two of them, the addresses of 27% of the voters were fake. Normally, Voter ID cards mention the complete address. But here, some cards mentioned only Uttar Pradesh as the address, while some mentioned only the words 'Jhuggi' or 'Naya'. At Booth 305, 240 voters were supposedly from the RHA Colony. But there is no such Colony. Local postman Vikas Chaudhary said that he had to throw away thousands of voter cards, because he couldn't locate the addresses. Booth Level Officers reported that every year, there are requests to delete the names of these fake voters, but the district administration refuses to do so. Another coincidence is that in the previous election, most of the votes from these three booths went to BJP. Booth 304's BLO, Poonam Agarwal said that before the Lok Sabha Election, the district officials ordered her to sign Form 6 for new voters' registrations in bulk. Within a few days, she signed more than 1,800 forms, and the names of these new voters were included in the voting list. This is against the rules too. Poonam claims that earlier, before signing Form 6, there used to be proper verification as to the voter, their proper address, and whether the form was filled properly or not. But this couldn't be done for these voters, because of the orders from her superiors. A person would bring hundreds of such forms around 8 PM, and she had to sign them. She said that she was afraid of action against her if she refused to sign them. You can understand the extent of the falsehood, at Booth 286, there are 48 voters, who claim to live in House No. 22 of Shivaji Colony. 48 voters from one house. But only one of them was female. Booth 305's BLO Mayank Tomar claimed that often times he catches random people from Punjab voting at his booth. That's not all, at Booth 304, during the 2017 UP Assembly Elections, the voter turnout at this booth was only 1.6%. By the 2022 Assembly Elections, it had suddenly reached 43%. Within 5 years, the voting percentage rose from 1.6% to 43%. How? Former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi stated that this clearly hints at something wrong. UP wasn't the only state where such instances occurred. Apart from News Laundry, Scroll.in investigated this too. Look at this report. During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Delhi's Khajuri Khas area, many names were removed from the voter list. When Sri Ram Colony's Farah Khan went to vote, she was told that her name isn't on the voter list. Her name had been deleted. Her sister Rubeena Khan's name wasn't on the list either. They asked the polling officer but received no answer. This was the seat from where Kanhaiya Kumar was contesting. When Delhi Tak's team went to talk to the voters there, this became apparent. "Many names have been cancelled or deleted from the voter list." "But when we are asking about it" "we are telling them that we voted last time too." "We're living in the same place." "So why has our name been cancelled?" "There are 7 eligible voters in our home," "but why are only 3 of them on the list?" "Deleted, deleted, deleted." "Entire pages full of names have been deleted." When Scroll accessed a copy of this list, it was found that names of 92 voters had been deleted, of which 90 were Muslims. The Electoral Registration Officer of this area Asha Chaudhry Malhotra claims that it's possible that the voters weren't home during the survey or their homes may have been locked. At Delhi's Qutub Institutional Area, JNU's professor Ayesha Kidwai's name was deleted from the voter list too. She had been voting at this booth for the past 33 years. But she couldn't vote in this election. When she tried to ask around, no one could tell her who had her name deleted. Goa's Hyacinth Pinto, works at the state's Public Works Department. She was a presiding officer in a polling booth too. Despite that, her name was removed from the voting list. She claims that not only her name, names of several Catholic voters had been removed, because they don't vote for BJP. What's happening exactly? You would have an idea after hearing about so many cases. Now let's see the proper procedure that needs to be followed. There's a process to add or delete someone's name to the voter list. Before an election, the Election Commission conducts a detailed special summary revision, and updates the voter list by adding or removing voters. The Booth Level Officers play the most important role in this process. Also known as BLOs. These BLOs go to each house to verify voter details to ensure that they live at the given address. Whether they are alive or not, whether their name should be in the voter list or not. Normally, this process begins in August and the first draft of the voter list is published in October. Delhi's Assembly elections would be conducted soon, for that, this process began on 20th August 2024. It continued till 18th October, and on 29th October, the draft electoral roll was published. This is like the first draft. Political parties and the people can object to this. They get about 30-45 days to raise their objections. In Delhi, this period was between 29th October to 28th November. These objections were reviewed till 24th December, and on 6th January 2025, Delhi's final voter list was published. This period in between, to raise objections, if the list needs any updation, it can be done by filling out forms. If someone wants to add a name to the voter list, they need to fill out Form 6. If you want to object to a name on the voter list and want to get it deleted, Form 7 needs to be filled. If someone's address has changed, or there's some misinformation, they need to fill out Form 8 to get it corrected. The Booth Level Officers are tasked with verifying these forms. As I told you, they play an important role in this machinery. So who are they? These BLOs are actually government or semi-government employees. They might be teachers, Anganwadi workers, electricity bill readers, postmen, or even health workers. The government pays them a salary, that's why the ruling party can pressurise them. Additionally, the entire responsibility of this process lies with the Electoral Registration Officer. They are a bureaucrat at the Sub-Divisional Officer rank. Removing someone's name from the voter list can be due to mainly four reasons. First, upon death. Second, if the person's address changes. Third, if there's a duplicate entry where someone is included more than once. Fourth, if they cannot be located at the address mentioned in the voter list. The reason needs to be mentioned in Form 7. That's the form to remove a voter's name from the list. Form 7 can be filled either by the officers, or any voter of the same constituency. Yup, this is a weird rule. Any voter living in your constituency can fill out a form to take away your right to vote. But while filing this form, the applicant needs to provide their voter details. Once this Form 7 is filled. after receiving Form 7, the Electoral Registration Office, sends a notice to the voter's address. And the voter gets 15 days to respond to that notice. So if someone attempts to get your name removed from the voter list, technically, you would receive a notice. And you would be given 15 days' time to let them know that the form was misleading. If this notice is returned to the Office, or the voter doesn't respond within 15 days, it's not as if this name would be deleted. As per the rules, a BLO would be sent to your address for ground verification. And if you're not at home, the BLO can then report that your name can be removed. If a voter passes away, the BLO is supposed to ask for the death certificate during ground verification. The ground verification is required even for duplicate entries. Only after the verification can a name be deleted. By now you'd have understood, multiple rules were being violated for those. Any random person was getting names deleted from the voting list, without mentioning their name or address properly. After that, there's no notice of the removal of the name, let alone a ground verification by the BLO. Additionally, Election Commission's Manual on Electoral Roll mentions that to remove names from the voter list, on individual applications are to be accepted. No person or organisation can file bulk applications. For example, submitting 1,000 forms to remove 1,000 names. Para 11.3.2 clearly mentions that bulk applications refer to applications submitted by a person to remove multiple names of someone else's family. If the applicant and the members are from the same family, then multiple names can be submitted by the applicant. To make the rules easier, it's also provided that the Booth Level Agents of any political party, may file multiple applications together if they submit a written declaration. But not more than 10 applications per day. And if at the time of voter list revision, if a Booth Level Agent files more than 30 applications, then the Electoral Registration Officer or the Assistant Electoral Registration Officer would need to personally cross-verify the applications. The question is, for the cases that I mentioned in this video, was the procedure followed? Did the ERO personally cross-verify these applications? Look at what's mentioned in Para 11.4.5. When the deletion applications at any polling station exceeds 2%, the ERO must personally verify the applications. Or if a person submits Form 7 for more than 5 voters, applies to delete more than 5 names, the ERO needs to personally cross-verify it. According to former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, the Election Commission takes a conservative stand for deletions. Even if the voter shifts to another address. Because they do not want to take away the right to vote from any voter. Historically, there have been many elections where the names of some voters are removed from the voting list. But the scale at which it's happening now is very alarming. This report by the Frontline magazine reiterates this. Most of the voters removed are those who do not vote for BJP. In 2019, there was a campaign called No Voter Left Behind. It revealed that the names of 120 million eligible voters weren't on the voter list. When the volunteers of No Voter Left Behind went door-to-door, it was found that they had voted in 2014. But after that, their names were removed from the voter list. They believe that because of the BLO's lax attitude, rules by the Election Commission can be misused to benefit political parties. Anyone can go to a polling booth with Form 20, to find out how many votes went to which party. The local leaders tasked with managing the booths, can easily identify which person would've voted for which party. And then these local politicians can use Form 7 to remove names from the voter list. Of course, the BLO is supposed to go to the addresses to verify facts. But BLOs aren't full-time employees. That's why this isn't done sincerely. Often these local politicians pressurise these BLOs. Former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi states that the caste and religious composition makes it clear that large-scale addition and deletion of voters is being done for political benefit. The Election Commission tells the political parties to keep track of the voter list. The Booth Level Agents of the political parties may submit forms to add or delete names. So this should be possible for all political parties. But there are 2 problems. First, as I mentioned, the salaries of the BLOs are paid by the ruling party. So they can exert pressure on these BLOs. Second, the richest party gets an undue advantage. BJP is the only political party with agents at almost all seats. For example, take Chandni Chowk's Assembly seat. There are 129 booths here. BJP has agents at 98 booths, whereas Congress and AAP have no agents. Of the 2,758 booths in Meerut, there are BJP agents at 1,271 booths, whereas Samajwadi Party and Congress have none. For transparency, the Election Commission publishes the Forms 9, 10, 11, 11A, 11B daily constituency-wise. Form 9 is the compilation of the voter addition applications, Form 10 is the compilation of voter deletion applications. Form 11 is for the correction applications, Form 11A is for the shifting of addresses within the constituency, and Form 11B is for the applications for shifting of addresses to other constituencies. These forms help the political parties to know about the number of applications to add or delete names from the voter list in each constituency. This helped detect the latest voter list fraud. Last month AAP accused BJP of trying to delete names from Delhi's voter list on a large scale. Arvind Kejriwal claimed that over the previous 6 weeks, for Shahdara area, BJP had submitted applications to delete the names of 11,018 voters. Apart from this, in Janakpuri, 24 BJP workers, submitted applications to delete names of 4,874 names. And in Tughlakabad, 15 BJP workers, applied to get the names of 2,435 voters deleted. At Polling Booth 117 in Tughlakabad, 2 people submitted 554 deletion application out of a total of 1,337. "Did you apply to delete your name from the voter list? Or are you moving to another address or something?" "Have you applied for deletion?" "No, I haven't." "BJP has submitted an application to get their names removed." "This is a well-thought-out conspiracy and it has been going on since 2014." "How did you get this data?" "The government doesn't know." "The government doesn't know whom you vote for." "We can vote for anyone we want." "BJP has applied to remove their names too." "I don't want to remove my name." In 1 polling booth, there are applications to remove 40% of the voters. These applications violate the rules of the election commission. As I mentioned earlier in the video. Election Commission's manual clarifies that bulk applications like this cannot be filed. 2 people cannot file applications to remove a thousand names from the voter list. So the question is, who will take action against it? Arvind Kejriwal claims that he has submitted more than 3,000 pages of evidence to the Election Commission. AAP MP Sanjay Singh claimed that BJP tried to remove his wife Anita Singh's name from the voter list twice. On 24th and 26th December. Arvind Kejriwal said what we have seen happening in previous Lok Sabha elections. Voters were removed from the voter list, without giving them a proper notice. He claims that this is being done again secretly. Many media channels interviewed people on the ground, where people confirmed that this is happening. "The names of many voters were removed from the voter list, -"is it true?" -"Absolutely." "Applications to remove about 300-350 names have been sent." "Many have been removed." "Was your name removed from the voter list?" "Sir, 2 months ago, BJP workers were doing a survey." "They asked for my name and address." "I gave them my address." "They said okay." "Then they asked me whom did I vote for in the 2020 elections." "I told them that I voted for AAP." "They said okay." "Then they went to other houses." "About 10 days later," "some people I knew had gone there for something," "they saw and informed me that my voter ID was being cancelled." The Election Commission has issued a clarification that that the BLOs would go for a door-to-door verification. Only after that would the final voter list be published. But the thing is, why is the Election Commission accepting such applications? Other political parties have supported Arvind Kejriwal in this issue. Bhuwani Bai who spent her entire life in Delhi's Jhilmil Colony, has been voting since 1992. But this December the BLO went to her house to tell her that her and her daughter's names were about to be removed from the voter list. Bhuwani Bai was surprised at this. She said that when she saw the list, there were about 300 other names of people from her area to be removed, many of whom were alive and still living in the same place. "These people here are trying to look for their names in the lists." -"Was your name removed too?" -"Yes, Sir." "Deleted?" "My name is Sushil Jaydev." "My name was removed from the voter list." So the question is, what can you do to protect your democratic right? To protect your right to vote. I told you that the final voting list was published on 6th January 2025. If your name is not on the voting list, it doesn't mean that you can't vote anymore. There's time to add your name to the voter list. For a few weeks after the publication of the final voter list, you are allowed to add your name. First, go to Election Commission's website. The link is in the description too. Or you can scan this QR code to get to the website. There you can check whether your name is in the final voter list or not. Whether you are among the ones whose names were removed from the voter list. There, click on the Electoral Roll, select your area, and you'd be able to see the voter list of your area. Or you can go to the Election Commission's Voter Helpline app, or you can call 1950 to confirm your status. Delhi's final voter list was published on 6th January 2025, and interestingly, had you checked before this date, your name might have been on the voter list, because a name can be removed at the end stage too. That's why it's important to check the final voting list too. If your name is on the list, superb! But if your name isn't on this list, you need to get it added. To do that, you need to go to this website. There you need to fill out Form 6. And if you need to modify your address, you need to fill out Form 8. To submit Form 6, you need to create your account, use your email ID or phone number and set a password. Log in to the website and fill in your personal information, residential address, and contact info. You'd need to upload some necessary documents like birth certificate, proof of age, proof of residence, and a passport-sized photo. The entire process is online, once you've filled it, you can submit the application online. Always remember this quote: "Every Election Is Determined By The People Who Show Up" Today, this voter list fraud could be possible only because most voters do not check these before elections.