A political row has erupted in Karnataka over the bulk filing of Form 7 applications, with Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar staging a dharna against alleged BJP involvement. The Election Commission has clarified that no voters have been deleted as a result of these applications and has initiated investigations into bulk filings, noting a significant number of applications have been received across the state.

A political row has erupted in Karnataka over the bulk filing of Form 7 applications, with Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar staging a dharna against alleged BJP involvement. The Election Commission has clarified that no voters have been deleted as a result of these applications and has initiated investigations into bulk filings, noting a significant number of applications have been received across the state.

A political row has erupted in Karnataka over the bulk filing of Form 7 applications, with Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar staging a dharna against alleged BJP involvement. The Election Commission has clarified that no voters have been deleted as a result of these applications and has initiated investigations into bulk filings, noting a significant number of applications have been received across the state.

The row over the bulk filing of Form 7 applications in Karnataka has taken yet another twist. On Saturday, Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar sat outside the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer’s office in what looked like a dharna to demand action over bulk Form 7 applications, which he alleged were filed by BJP workers.

Though the Chief Minister and the Congress party termed it an appeal to the CEO, the BJP and its ally JD(S) have been demanding action against the CM for disrupting the Election Commission’s work and conducting a dharna on the premises. Today, a delegation of top party leaders—B.Y. Vijayendra, R. Ashoka, and H.D. Kumaraswamy—met the CEO, urging them not to take action against BJP workers who filed Form 7.

Before the NDA alleys arrived, CEO Anbukkumar V , who is known for handling the media with calm and clever answers, clarified that not a single voter has been deleted in the state because of objections filed through Form 7, a form used for the deletion of voters because of duplication and death. These forms can be filed by the voter themselves in the case of duplicate deletion and by relatives in the case of the death of a voter in the family.

Apart from this, a BLA-2 can file an objection against a voter they think is not eligible to be on the electoral roll. In such cases, only up to 10 applications can be filed by one BLA-2 at a time, and a maximum of 50 can be filed by one BLA-2 during the entire SIR process.

From June 16, 2026, to October 4, 2026, 91,278 Form 7 applications have been received by the Election Commission, for which the commission has no break-up of the reasons for which they were received.

The CEO also mentioned that he has already issued a notice to all DEOs to investigate bulk Form 7 filings in the constituencies and take necessary action within seven days. However, he said that so far no complaints have been filed by the DEOs, and all the complaints filed over the alleged bulk applications are from private parties and not from the Election Commission.

The maximum number of Form 7 applications filed in the state is in the Shivamogga constituency (5,936), followed by Dakshina Kannada (5,534). Interestingly, none of these constituencies are mentioned in the complaint raised by the Congress party.

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