Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai
Mumbai, May 23: More than a week after the Election Commission of India announced the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Maharashtra, political parties have shown a mixed response in appointing Booth Level Agents (BLAs) across the state.
According to the Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer’s office, the state has 1,00,253 polling booths. However, most parties are yet to appoint BLAs for all booths.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has appointed the highest number of BLAs at 52,215, followed by the Shiv Sena with 17,800 and the Indian National Congress with 17,421.
The Nationalist Congress Party has appointed 4,468 BLAs, while Shiv Sena (UBT) has appointed 10,140 BLAs.
Officials said the Nationalist Congress Party led by Sunetra Pawar has appointed 6,472 BLAs, while the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena led by Raj Thackeray has appointed 3,848 BLAs. The Bahujan Samaj Party has appointed 193 BLAs, while the Aam Aadmi Party has appointed 57.
The voter list revision exercise will begin from June 30.
BLAs are appointed by recognised political parties at polling booths and work in coordination with Booth Level Officers (BLOs), who represent the Election Commission at the grassroots level. Their role includes identifying deceased, shifted or duplicate voters to help maintain an accurate electoral roll.
State election officials said repeated requests had been made to political parties to appoint BLAs, especially after controversies surrounding electoral roll revisions in West Bengal and Bihar ahead of Assembly elections.
Officials said BLOs would share lists of proposed deleted voters with BLAs for verification after publication of draft electoral rolls. If BLAs submit valid objections and supporting documents, the voters’ names could be restored to the rolls.
Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer S Chockalingam said electoral roll mapping in the state had reached 72.04 per cent, with nearly seven crore voters mapped out of 9.86 crore electors.
He added that BLOs would conduct door-to-door verification from June 30 to July 29 to confirm whether mapping had been completed.
Chockalingam also stated that if delays occur during the revision process, the state election office may seek additional time from the Election Commission of India.