As the Election Commission of India (ECI) launching its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, political parties have pulled up their socks to join the campaign.
The ECI has a herculean task to cover over 1.62 lakh polling booths with 15.44 crore voters in just a month time.
Booth Level Officers (BLOs) have started reaching door-to-door from Tuesday as the voter list prepared after the SIR will serve as a crucial basis for the 403 seat during the 2027 Assembly elections in the state. The entire process is a rigorous test for the ECI, BLOs, political parties, and even voters.
In Lucknow, the state capital, over 3,800 BLOs have started reaching out to the voters from Tuesday morning.
Political parties too are not lagging behind in joining the SIR. They have set up ‘ War Room’ to ensure the presence of Booth Level Agents( BLA) to ensure that no eligible voter get rejected in this one month long campaign.
The Bharatiya Janata Party( BJP) and the Samajwadi Party( SP) have formed strong teams at each booth for SIR while the Bahujan Samaj Party( BSP) has also assigned SIR responsibilities to booth presidents, sector presidents, and BLAs. However, other parties, including the Congress, were lagging behind in deputing BLAs and were working hard to match with on another.
On the other hand, under the Election Commission’s new system, a booth will now have a maximum of 1,200 voters, making it easier to contact them and get them to vote on election day. Officials in the CEO’s office said this will increase the number of polling booths in the state from 1.62 lakh to more than 1.82 lakh.
According to a senior BJP official, a team of 5 to 6 officials along with BLA-1 has been formed in every assembly.
A booth member has been appointed for each booth, who is from another Shakti Kendra. Each booth will be staffed by a team of two or three BLAs, including the booth in-charge. All Assembly coordinators have been authorized to serve as BLAs at the state level and submitted their list to the Election Commission.
The BJP official said the party has also formed booth committees in Muslim and Yadav dominated booths where BJP is currently weak. “Besides BJP’s war room have been set up in every region and district. The party has appointed coordinators for SIR in Awadh, Kashi, West, Braj, Gorakhpur and Kanpur regions and has also set up war rooms. All regional coordinators have been instructed to sit in war room every day. They have to talk to the district and assembly coordinators related to their area every day and take reports. Also, a report has to be taken about which officials in the districts are not going to the booths. A team of at least ten workers will be deployed there from morning until evening” he said about the function of the war rooms.”
The leader said the BJP has also entrusted MPs and MLAs with the responsibility of printing voter lists. All MPs, 2024 candidates, MLAs, and defeated 2022 candidates have been entrusted with the responsibility of printing voter lists, set up war rooms and review SIR progress in their respective areas.
The Bahujan Samaj Party too has formed a team of six people at each booth to conduct the SIR. The Booth President, Booth General Secretary, and three Booth Secretaries will assist the BLA in going door-to-door to gather information on individual voters. The BLA will make the final decision after checking the BLO’s list.
The party has given the responsibility to the sector president to monitor the booth level team, a senior party leader said.
“Each sector has 10 to 12 booths. Each sector has a team of 11 people, including the chairman. They are also tasked with booth-wise monitoring. While each assembly constituency has 35 to 40 sectors. The two assembly coordinators are also responsible for monitoring. Above them, the district coordinator, district president, and, above all, the divisional coordinator are entrusted with monitoring,” the BSP leader said.
Samajwadi Party has also geared up for SIR. Party’s national spokesperson and MLC Rajendra Choudhary said that the party is deploying agents at the booth level, who will do the work of coordination between the Election Commission and the common voters. Booth level agents have been asked to ensure that no voter’s name is left out from being included in the voter list.
A helpline centre is also being set up at the Samajwadi Party headquarters, where if anyone is facing any problem, they will be helped by the party, he said.
UP Congress’s preparations for the SIR are currently lagging. The Congress party is currently in the process of deploying BLA-1s at all 1.62 lakh booths in the state.
“A deadline of November 6 has been set for naming BLAs. They will begin their work at the booth level from November 7. For monitoring, the Congress has established a Connect Center, which will serve as a war room to oversee the entire process,” informed UP Congress President Ajay Rai.