The officials, however, said around 85% of the total 15.44 crore voter enumeration forms in the state have been digitized so far.
File Photo: IANS
Even as the Election Commission’s special intensive revision (SIR) exercise continues to make noise across the country, political parties have failed to appoint the required number of booth level agents (BLAs) in various districts of Uttar Pradesh.
The officials, however, said around 85% of the total 15.44 crore voter enumeration forms in the state have been digitized so far.
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According to official sources, the country’s oldest party, the Indian National Congress, does not have BLAs in 17 districts of the northern state.
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Similarly, principal opposition Samajwadi Party does not have any BLA in Rampur district, the stronghold of Mohammad Azam Khan, while BSP has no BLA in Kanpur Nagar district.
The ruling BJP too is not lagging behind as it could not find any BLAs in 2,643 booths, mostly in the minority dominated areas.
After Booth Level Officers (BLOs), Booth Level Agents (BLAs) are the most important link for political parties in the SIR.
Political observers claim that during Lok Sabha or assembly elections, BLAs play crucial roles for political parties in everything from booth management to bringing voters to the polling station. It is believed that the political party with the best booth management could achieve favourable election results, observers say.
UP Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa told The Statesman, “From time to time, we have requested the political parties to appoint their BLAs and provide us with a list so that the SIR’s work can be carried out more smoothly.”
He said ECI had held meetings with the representatives of the political parties before the start of the SIR but even after assurance, they failed to comply.
According to information received from the ECI, a total of 4,91,115 BLAs have been appointed by political parties for SIR at 1,62,486 booths in UP.
The highest number of BLAs have been appointed by the BJP (1,59,843), followed by the SP (1,42,121), the BSP (1,38,681), the Congress (49,121), Apna Dal (S) (1,056), the CPI(M) (208), and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) at 85 booths.
According to sources, nearly 70% of the booths do not have a single BLA of Congress. There is not a single BLA of Congress at any of the booths in Ambedkar Nagar, Auraiya, Bahraich, Ballia, Bhadohi, Hamirpur, Jhansi, Kannauj, Kaushambi, Mathura, Mau, Prayagraj, Saharanpur, Sant Kabir Nagar, Shahjahanpur, Shamli and Sultanpur districts.
At the same time, in five districts, the Congress has BLAs at less than a hundred booths. There are 70 BLAs in Sonbhadra, 80 in Kushinagar, 93 in Hapur, 83 in Fatehpur, 35 in Etawah.
However, UP Congress president Ajay Rai claimed that the party will appoint BLAs at 95% of booths till December 11, the last date for submission of the enumeration forms for SIR by the voters.
The BSP has appointed BLAs at 138,681 (85.34 percent) of the 162,484 booths. However, Kanpur Nagar is the only district where the BSP does not have a single BLA.
Similarly, the Samajwadi Party doesn’t have a single BLA in the Rampur district, stronghold of Mohammad Azam Khan. The Samajwadi Party has appointed BLAs at 142,121 (87.46 percent) of the 162,486 booths.
Even the BJP, which claims to be the biggest political party in the state and the country, has no BLAs at 2643 booths in UP. Out of 1,62,486 booths in UP, the BJP has booth level agents only at 1,59,843 booths. This is the situation when the BJP has been in power at the Centre for the last eleven and a half years and in UP for almost nine years.
Among the NDA partners, except for Apna Dal( Sonelal) , others like the Rashtriya Lok Dal( RLD), SBSP, NISHAD Party and Jansatta Party have not appointed a single BLA for the SIR. Apna Dal (S) has appointed over 1000 BLAs in selected booths.
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