War rooms, a dedicated website, WhatsApp groups, and elected representatives for supervision. These are some of the measures parties are taking in Uttar Pradesh to ensure their supporters are not left out of the electoral rolls after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) rolled out across the state by the Election Commission (EC) on November 4.
With the 2027 Assembly elections set to use the updated electoral rolls, the two main players in the state, the BJP and Samajwadi Party (SP), have gone down to the micro level to ensure their supporters are not struck off the rolls.
Here is a look at what different parties are doing.
BJP
The party has already zeroed in on Booth-Level Agents (BLA-1 and BLA-2) for all 1.62 lakh polling stations across the state. Sources said the BJP had already submitted the list of its authorised BLAs for 205 of the 403 Assembly seats to the EC.
The party has also appointed elected representatives as “booth pravasis” in each booth for supervision, coordination and redressal of issues that may arise during the SIR.
Each Assembly constituency will also house a BJP war room to monitor the BLAs’ work, while party workers have been deployed to assist BLAs in getting the enumeration forms filled. “The BLAs will collect details like photographs, application number and contact number of voters who need help with the SIR. Four to five from the war room will collect a daily report from the BLAs. In case a BLA faces inconvenience during the exercise, the war room will escalate the issue to party higher-ups,” a BJP leader said.
Sources said apart from the Assembly-level war rooms, those set up in each of the 75 district headquarters will be in cohesion with a grand war room at the state level. “The BJP’s election management department will oversee operations of all war rooms,” a source said.
The BJP is also setting up one “Shakti Kendra” for every five polling booths, where a district office-bearer would be deployed to physically monitor the BLAs and booth-level committees.
“The party is providing copies of the electoral rolls of 2002 (when the last SIR was held) to each polling booth, BLAs and booth-level committee members. This will ensure that every eligible person is registered for SIR by November 9. Workers will hit the ground from November 12,” said a BJP insider.
Samajwadi Party
The Akhilesh Yadav-led party, which has been alleging discrepancies in the electoral rolls, will keenly watch the exercise. “We will keep a close eye on every update and ensure that no ineligible people feature in the updated rolls,” a senior SP leader said.
Sources said the SP has begun the process of nominating BLAs. The party has also communicated to the local election office that the concerned district president would be the point of contact in places where it has failed to find a suitable candidate.
The party is exercising extreme caution while selecting the BLAs. “People in the village are often hesitant in taking up such responsibilities. We are looking for committed party workers, who are aware of the voters in their booths to assume the role of BLAs,” a source said.
A dedicated website has been made operational and login IDs for the same have been given to all district presidents, who have been tasked with daily sharing the details of the BLAs and the work done by them.
“No hard copies of the BLA details need to be sent to the top leadership as they can access it through the portal,” an SP leader said.
Another leader said helpline numbers at the block, district, and Assembly-level will be made operational to assist people facing difficulties in filling out the enumeration forms.
In some districts such as Muzaffarnagar, the SP has appointed a “matdaan prabhari (election in-charge)” to guide and supervise BLAs. The “matdaan prabhari” will report to the Vidhan Sabha in-charge.
“The SP’s focus will be to ensure no voter of the Pichchda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak (PDA) is deleted from the roll. Party workers will help them in filling out enumeration forms and procuring documents,” said SP spokesperson Sudhir Pawar.
Akhilesh is scheduled to meet the party’s district presidents on November 10 to discuss the SIR.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)
Party chief Mayawati, along with a team of her leaders, has prepared a three-page booklet of key points from the EC’s guidelines on the SIR.
“The pointers have simplified language so that our core voter base (of Dalits), who are mostly poor and deprived, can understand them and participate in the SIR. Apart from this, the Muslim and OBC Bhaichara committees have been tasked with creating awareness in their respective communities,” a BSP leader said.
Mayawati, during the Muslim Bhaichara meeting in Lucknow last week, instructed office-bearers to actively participate in the SIR and ensure no eligible voter is left out.
Congress
The Congress, whose leader Rahul Gandhi has been one of the most vocal critics of the SIR, has created WhatsApp groups of its BLAs, who would be monitored by district office-bearers.
The party has already set up a war room in its state headquarters in Lucknow.
According to party spokesperson Anshu Awasti, the party has finalised BLAs for most booths. “The Congress as a party is doing its job but the responsibility of preparing fair and clean electoral rolls, and conducting free and fair elections lies with the EC,” he said.