11th tweak at 11th hour keeps voters, BLOs on tenterhooks
Times of India | 12 December 2025
Kolkata: Several electors, who had filled their enumeration forms, linking their voting rights with their grandparents', uncles' or aunts', whose names were on the 2002 SIR list, started receiving calls from their booth-level officers (BLO)s on Thursday night, hours before EC's Dec 12 midnight deadline, to immediately submit fresh documents proving the relationships.
The night chaos to submit documents came after BLOs in Bengal found at the 11th hour that the EC had introduced yet another feature on the BLO App—the 11th one since the app's rollout—though the option for enumeration work would be deactivated post midnight as the exercise would come to an end after over a month.
BLOs, already grappling with the challenges of finishing the listing of data in the absent, shifted or dead/duplicate (ASD) category, were on Thursday instructed to use the new feature, Reverify Logical Discrepancies, to check any data that didn't add up or seemed incorrect. "This is mindless. I have already digitised forms of 800 voters. But after the introduction of the latest verification tool on Thursday, 200 forms were sent back in the afternoon for a re-check," said a BLO. "All these features will be disabled at midnight, and my superiors expect me to re-verify the 200 voters' data before that. I am calling them up one by one and asking them to send across relevant documents on WhatsApp or bring them to me in person."
Another BLO said, "For mapping of family members, several BLOs and I had told our superiors that if voters did not give their parents' names, they should be asked to submit relevant documents, establishing their relationships with the persons mentioned. We were told it was not necessary. What was not necessary then is needed at the 11th hour. This is harassment for us as well as voters."
A number of enumeration forms had so far been returned after detection of spelling variations, relationship and gender issues, incorrect spelling of guardians' names, someone aged above 45 years is linked with parents, and less than 15 years' age gap with parents, said an EC official.
A day earlier, the EC had added the BLO-BLA MOM feature on the app, asking for the involvement of both BLOs and agents of political parties in enumerating the data of those in the ASDD category. Some BLOs called the constant addition of app features a "deliberate attempt" by the EC to "hamper the smooth functioning of the revision of electoral rolls by exerting utmost mental pressure". "The 10th feature caused immense confusion and I worked till late at night to cross-check the ASDD data. This morning, I discovered another feature for an exercise that will be closed at midnight," said a BLO in south Kolkata.