Two More BLO Deaths Spark Political Row Over SIR Workload

In West Bengal's Murshidabad and Gujarat's Mehsana, two primary school teachers assigned as booth-level officers in the ongoing special intensive revision of electoral rolls died from a cardiac arrest, leading to allegations that they were under extreme work pressure.

A Trinamool Congress delegation met with the whole bench of the Election Commission in Delhi on Friday, accusing the head of the poll panel of having "blood on his hands" after West Bengal reported the fourth (booth-level officer) BLO fatality since the exercise started in the state on November 4.

Akhilesh Yadav, the president of the Samajwadi Party, also launched a new assault on the EC on the special intense revision (SIR), alleging that it was a "big conspiracy" against the nation's residents that may force them into a situation "worse than the colonial era".

In West Bengal's Murshidabad district, Zakir Hossain, a teacher at a state-run primary school who was deployed as a BLO, collapsed on Thursday afternoon after complaining of severe chest pain and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died later that night, family members said.

According to relatives, Hossain had been under "tremendous pressure" to balance his regular teaching work and SIR responsibilities.

They said that he was forced to do both duties at the same time because the primary school administration refused to release him in spite of his repeated requests, which worsened the burden.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other leaders of the Trinamool Congress have accused the EC of giving BLOs an "inhumane" and "unplanned" workload.

The BJP, however, denied the accusation, arguing that political and administrative pressure from the ruling TMC, rather than the EC's recommendations, was the cause of the stress experienced by BLOs.

During the day, the 10-member TMC delegation, led by Rajya Sabha leader Derek O'Brien, met the EC officials. The delegation also consisted of Lok Sabha MPs Mahua Moitra, Satabdi Roy, Kalyan Banerjee, Pratima Mondal, Sajda Ahmed, and Rajya Sabha MPs Dola Sen, Mamata Thakur, Saket Gokhale, and Prakash Chik Barik.

Following their meeting, O'Brien addressed reporters, saying the party raised five questions, but Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar did not respond to any of them.

"We started the meeting by stating that the CEC has blood on its hands. We raised five questions. After this, Kalyan Banerjee, Mahua Moitra, and Mamata Thakur spoke and shared whatever they had to in about 40 minutes," O'Brien said.

"Then the CEC spoke uninterrupted for one hour. We were also not interrupted while we spoke, but we did not receive any answer to any of our five questions," he added.

According to Moitra, the delegation gave the CEC a list of forty individuals whose deaths they said were connected to the SIR exercise. However, the Lok Sabha MP asserted that the commission rejected it as mere accusations.

SP head Yadav urged the opposition parties, including partners of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), to "unite and expose this mega-conspiracy of the BJP" in a 20-second video on the SIR process that he posted on his official X handle on Thursday night.

Attacking the roll revision exercise, he charged, "This is fraud with democracy. People must stay alert. Today, votes are being cut, tomorrow names will be removed from land records, ration cards, caste certificates, reservations, and later even from bank accounts and lockers of the middle-class." In a detailed post, the SP chief said, "This is a major conspiracy against the people of this country, which will lead to a situation far worse than the colonial era. This is the time to wake up and protect every single vote." BJP state spokesperson Harishchandra Srivastava hit back at Yadav, saying that the SP chief is making a malicious attempt to spread fear and confusion among the public through his post.

Meanwhile, the EC said Lakshadweep has become the first Union territory in the country to complete 100 per cent distribution and digitisation of SIR enumeration forms. 

Twelve states and Union territories are presently conducting SIR.

According to Satlasana police station sub-inspector Udaysinh Zala, Dinesh Raval (50), a teacher at a government primary school in Sudasana village in Mehsana, passed away at home on the night between Thursday and Friday from a heart attack.

While the opposition Congress and teachers' union linked the BLO's death to excessive work pressure and lack of facilities, police denied the allegations.

Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi alleged that BLOs are under immense pressure to finish the assigned work in time. President of Gujarat State Primary Teacher Association, Digvijaysinh Jadeja, claimed he came to know from other teachers that Raval was under pressure due to BLO-related work.