Parties Lag In Appointing Booth Level Agents Ahead Of Maharashtra SIR

According to the Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) office, the state has 1,00,253 polling booths, but most parties have appointed far fewer BLAs. The BJP leads with 52,215 BLAs, followed by the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena (17,800), Congress (17,421), Shiv Sena (UBT) (10,140), and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (4,468). The ECI’s Maharashtra unit will begin the voter list revision exercise on June 30.

BLAs are appointed by recognised political parties for each polling booth and work in coordination with Booth Level Officers (BLOs), who represent the ECI at the grassroots level. Usually local party workers, BLAs help identify deceased, shifted, or duplicate voters to maintain an accurate electoral roll.

Amid the controversy surrounding the SIR process in West Bengal and Bihar ahead of their respective Assembly elections, the Maharashtra CEO’s office has been urging political parties to appoint BLAs to assist BLOs in reaching voters.

“We have written multiple letters requesting all political parties to appoint BLAs for the SIR. Apart from us, all district collectors have also been instructed to push for the appointment of BLAs at every polling booth in their respective districts,” a senior official from the state branch of the ECI said.

The official added that BLAs would help BLOs verify voters at the local level, as they are familiar with whether a voter is alive, has shifted residence, or is deceased.

“After the draft publication of the electoral roll for the SIR at each polling booth, BLOs will provide BLAs with a list of voters proposed for deletion or confirmation. A photograph will be taken while handing over the list to the BLAs to ensure that political parties do not later raise objections, as happened in Bihar and West Bengal,” the official said.

The official added that if BLAs raise objections and provide valid documents for voters identified for deletion, their names would be retained in the electoral roll.

Officials said the Nationalist Congress Party led by Sunetra Pawar has appointed 6,472 BLAs across the state, while the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) led by Raj Thackeray has appointed 3,848 BLAs. The Bahujan Samaj Party has appointed 193 BLAs and the Aam Aadmi Party 57.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra CEO S. Chockalingam said electoral roll mapping in the state has reached 72.04 per cent, with 7 crore electors mapped out of 9,86,44,413 voters.

“Our BLOs will visit every household from June 30 to July 29 to verify whether the mapping has been completed,” he said.

Asked whether the state would seek additional time from the ECI, as demanded by some political parties, Mr. Chockalingam said that an extension would be requested if delays arise in completing the SIR process.