80,000-odd BLOs hand out 18L forms on day 1 of Bengal SIR
Times of India | 5 November 2025
Kolkata: Bengal's first special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in 23 years started on Tuesday with more than 80,000 booth level officers (BLOs) distributing 18 lakh enumeration forms on day 1.
Bengal has over 7.6 crore voters, all of whom need to fill the forms by Dec 4 to retain their names on the revised list, to be prepared ahead of next year's assembly polls.
The first day passed off smoothly barring a few complaints that some BLOs were not given enough enumeration forms and attempts to fill in forms online by scanning QR codes drew a blank.
EC has opened a control room in Delhi to monitor the Bengal SIR. In a note, the EC asked all govt officers, including BLOs, to respond to calls from the control room and provide all the details asked for.
As the BLOs hit the ground, the office of the Bengal chief electoral officer said all BLOs are engaged full time for door-to-door visits till Dec 4 as part of the SIR.
The statement assumes significance as the BLOs, most of whom are schoolteachers, have been demanding that they be not marked ‘absent' at their place of work for their involvement in the SIR.
"We are asking BLOs to fully concentrate on SIR work from the morning, instead of their office duties," additional CEO Arindam Niyogi said, adding that the poll panel was yet to say anything on the BLOs' demand for ‘on-duty' tag for their SIR work.
Sources said EC usually asks the state govt to issue the ‘on-duty' order, as was done during the SIR in Bihar.
EC made it clear in a statement that no voter needs to submit any documents, along with the enumeration form, to the BLOs or BLAs now. The statement said, "No paper will be collected by the BLO and BLA from any elector during House to House visit. Two copies of EF (enumeration forms) will be handed over to each elector by BLO and after filling up by the elector one copy will be returned with acknowledgement by the BLO to the elector and the other copy will be retained by the BLO.
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The poll panel said the eight registered political parties in Bengal have appointed over 63,000 booth level agents (BLAs) with BJP leading the pack with 24,858 agents, followed by CPM (18,706). Trinamool, which has the most dominant presence in Bengal at the booth level, is in the third position with 13,526 BLAs.
A Trinamool senior indicated that this was a strategic move, aimed at preventing the party's BLAs from being "poached or subjected to threats" by other parties.
Across Kolkata, BLOs started door-to-door visits amid confusion and anxiety. In the Bhowanipore assembly constituency, about 150 BLOs were involved in the distribution of enumeration forms to nearly 2 lakh voters. Accompanied by booth level agents, the BLOs started their home visits after 10.30 am.
Saraswati Rajak Das, a schoolteacher and BLO in Bhowanipore, said, "I shall have to go back to school after distributing the forms.
I am doing the enumeration job for the first time and am being helped by a BLA, who is taking me to houses mentioned on my list."
Of the 700 addresses on her list, she said she had to visit over 100 on the first day.
Arup Kumar Mondal, a resident of Prince Anwar Shah Road, has to distribute 884 forms in Tollygunge. "On Tuesday, I went to the quarters opposite Radha Studio on Deshpran Sasmal Road and distributed 64 forms. Most people seemed to be concerned about the SIR.
Clearing doubts took a lot of time," he said.
Sanjay Kumar Das, a BLO in Haltu, started his day handing out forms to residents of Prasanna Das Road. He covered 20 houses and distributed 30 forms. "The first day passed off peacefully," he said.
On Garfa Main Road and in Manasatala, both in ward 104 of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, about 30% of the forms were distributed till afternoon.
BLO Chandan Kumar Naskar said, "It's just the first day. Once people get used to the online system, it will be a lot smoother."
Another BLO said, "Many households have shifted elsewhere, and some voters have died. This has caused gaps in the records, resulting in confusion."