The Godda district election authorities have sought a report and initiated an inquiry into the submission of Form 7 applications seeking deletion of voters’ names at Booth No. 9 in Maheshtikri village of Basantrai block, after that Block Level Officers (BLOs) of at least four booths had raised red flags over them.

Block Development Officer (BDO), Basantrai, Sriman Marandi said Wednesday that the Deputy Election Officer (DEO) had sought a report, and a Block Panchayati Raj Officer was sent to Maheshtikri to conduct a field inquiry. The report is expected by Thursday.

“The panchayat officer went to the village and spoke to the people,” Marandi told , adding that the findings would be submitted to the block-level officer, following which the report would be forwarded to the DEO.

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Marandi, who is also the Electoral Registration Officer of the block, said the inquiry was specifically related to Booth No. 9 of Maheshtikri village for now. Allegations concerning two-three other locations had been discussed locally, the BDO said.

“What we have received from Booth Level Agents (BLAs) is regarding Booth No. 9. The voters’ complaints are also regarding Booth No. 9. People have spoken about two-three other places, but we have not received anything in writing regarding those, which is why the inquiry is specifically for this booth,” Marandi said.

He also clarified that this inquiry was separate from the preliminary verification ordered by him after the issue first came to his notice. As part of that, officials had spoken to the BLO of Booth No. 9 regarding 25 Form 7 applications brought to her. “The BLO told us that 24 out of the 25 people were here (in the village). The 25th person was also from (the village) but was out for two-three months due to work. These are people whom the BLO sees regularly and who are permanent residents there,” Marandi said.

reported Wednesday that across at least four booths, BLOs had refused to accept Form 7 applications, flagging them as not genuine or not procedurally sound. The applicants were BJP BLAs, and most of the voters against whom forms were filed belong to the minority community.

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In Booth No. 9, 25 such forms were filed against voters by BJP BLA Sanjeev Kumar Roshan. spoke to eight of these voters, who expressed fears of being disenfranchised or cut off from the roster of government schemes.

In a neighbouring booth, a BLA turned up with 75 such forms, and when questioned by the BLO, he, by his own admission, promptly burned them on the spot.

BLOs are employees of the state government, which is currently headed by a JMM-Congress alliance.

Marandi said the administration would wait for the formal inquiry report before making any further assessment of the Booth No. 9 complaints.

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While Marandi earlier said that after complaints were received from four booths, BLOs were told not to act on forms “because we did not know the source of the forms”, he told Wednesday that the administration has clarified to the BLOs now that if they had any doubts or confusion regarding a Form 7 objection, the matter should be discussed with the election official concerned rather than simply refusing to receive the application. “The BLAs could also have approached us (with deletion applications),” he said.

Marandi said he had spoken on the matter to Jharkhand Chief Electoral Officer K Ravi Kumar, and was told that Form 7 applications should be accepted and processed according to the prescribed procedure.