Amid the exchange of words between AAP and BJP on deletion of voters in the National Capital, the District Election Officer (DEO), New Delhi on Saturday refuted the allegation of Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh wherein the latter had blamed the Election Commission of deleting his wife Anita Singh’s vote from New Delhi assembly constituency.

In a post on X, the DEO New Delhi posted, “The allegations of Sanjay Singh that DEO, New Delhi, did not provide details of objectors and claimed and is deliberately deleting names of electors from the electoral roll are factually not correct and baseless”.

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As per the guidelines of the Election Commission of India, the summary of Form 7 (delete of vote) which includes the names of both the objectors and objectee, is shared with all recognized political parties including AAP on a weekly basis. Additionally, this information is uploaded on the official website of CEO Delhi for public access and transparency. Hence, the statement that objectors’ names are not being shared is factually not correct, it added.

Secondly, the process of deleting any name from the electoral roll is carried out strictly in accordance with the guidelines issued by the ECI. The process starts with filing of form 7 and in all such cases, thorough field verification is conducted by the Booth Level Officers (BLOs), BLO supervisors, and other officers as per prescribed norms. Mere submitting a list for deletion doesn’t start the deletion process, the post mentioned.

Citing the example of Anita Singh, wife of Sanjay Singh, two separate Form 7 applications were filed for the deletion of her name. However, upon field verification, the BLO found her residing at the given address, and both Form 7 applications were rejected. Additionally, an FIR was lodged against the objectors for wrongful filing of Form 7, the poll official statement clarified.

It added all deletions are carried out in strict compliance with ECI norms to maintain the integrity and accuracy of the electoral roll.