How was alleged voter fraud in Aland exposed? 

Ashok Kumar (name changed), a Congress worker from Aland Assembly constituency, had a rude shock when his sister, an anganwadi teacher and a Booth Level Officer (BLO), received Form 7 applications to delete multiple votes from their family claiming they had “shifted” in early 2023. 

“My sister alerted me to these applications. Multiple votes from my family were sought to be deleted, saying we no longer stayed in our village, which was false. The applications were made in the name of a woman from our village, who claimed she made no such applications,” he told The Hindu, adding that there were a total of 47 Form 7 applications to delete votes from their small village.

“I alerted our candidate B.R. Patil, who further took up the issue and saved all our votes,” he said. 

While he wanted to remain anonymous, his sister, the BLO, was not willing to talk. “Once we were alerted to this fraud being perpetrated, we got our workers to check in their villages for such patterns in Form 7s and soon realised the extent of the scandal. We prompted all such voters – those whose votes were sought to be fraudulently deleted or whose credentials were misused to do so – to make representations to the tahsildar regarding the same. But this is a rural constituency and many of our own supporters feared making these representations. We got 38 such voters to complain to the tahsildar,” Mr. Patil said.

The Hindu is in possession of copies of these 38 applications.