Salabatpura area of Surat. Hundreds of residents have filed a formal complaint

A major controversy over the electoral rolls has erupted in the Salabatpura area of Surat. Hundreds of residents have filed a formal complaint at the local police station, alleging that the local Bharatiya Janata Party corporator, Vikram Popat Patil, is trying to eliminate their names from the list.

Locals said that Form 7, used for the removal of a voter’s name, is being misused, with applications submitted to erase the names of numerous living voters by falsely declaring them ‘deceased’.

All the complainants are Muslims.

The application forms display the name and mobile number of BJP corporator Vikram Popat Patil. The Wire Hindi reached out to Patil via phone for his take on the matter, but he disconnected the call after saying, “There is nothing of the sort.”

Subsequently, he stopped responding to phone calls. A message was sent to him, but no response was received until the time of publication of this report in Hindi.

The signature on the Form 7 applications corresponds with the signature Patil provided on his election affidavit, which he filled out during the Surat Municipal Corporation elections in 2021.
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Vikram Popat Patil’s election affidavit and form 7 signatures.

To find out what action the police have taken or are taking on the complaints, The Wire Hindi reached out to Inspector K.D. Jadeja of Salabatpur Police Station, but the policeman did not respond.

Sixty-nine-year-old Abdul Razzaq Wazir Shah, who lives in the Anwarnagar locality, is one of the complainants. Shah told The Wire Hindi, “The BJP is targeting us because we are Muslims. Our votes are being deliberately removed.”

Read more on thewire.in

Courtesy the Wire