The daily data put out by the Election Commission shows that half-way into the one-month enumeration phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), ongoing in nine states and three Union Territories, 99% of the 51 crore registered electors had received their forms as of Wednesday. However, only about 16% of the completed forms had been digitised, with reports coming in from states of Booth Level Officers (BLOs), who are responsible for the distribution, collection and digitisation of forms, complaining of pressure to meet the deadline.
As per the schedule announced by the EC on October 27, the SIR process started on November 4, and all electors in the 12 states / UTs have to submit their enumeration forms by December 4, in order to be on the draft electoral rolls to be published on December 9. EC sources said that the digitised forms can technically be uploaded till the publication of the draft roll, giving the BLOs a few extra days.
On Wednesday, a third death of a BLO by suicide was reported, this time from West Bengal, with family members blaming it on the stress of meeting the SIR deadline. The earlier deaths had been reported from Kerala and Rajasthan.
After Bihar, when it had to make several changes due to issues arising from the SIR, the EC had tweaked the process for this phase. In Bihar, all those who were not on the 2003 electoral rolls of the state, when the last intensive revision was done, were required to submit documents to prove eligibility along with the enumeration forms. This time, the EC has said no documents are to be taken in this phase, and electors can provide the required details regarding the last intensive revision roll in the form itself. This means BLOs have to physically match the forms with the old electoral rolls, which is proving to be a monumental task.
If the matching does not happen, notices would be issued from December 9 to January 31, 2026. It is at that phase that electors would be asked for documents to establish their age, place of residence and citizenship. Sources said that BLOs are also under pressure to keep the number of notices down – which may cloud the SIR process – and to hence do the matching at this stage itself.
EC sources said they were confident that the digitisation would be done on time, though the numbers seem heavily skewed – till Wednesday, while 98.79% of the enumeration forms had been distributed, 15.98% had been digitised or filled and uploaded.
In Uttar Pradesh, where the enrolment work is huge due to the population of the state, only about 3.77% of the forms had been digitised till Wednesday. In Bulandshahr district, the administration filed an FIR against six BLOs on charges of negligence, failure to report to duty on time, and shirking SIR responsibility.
“Complaints of some BLOs’ continued negligence had reached higher authorities,” an official said.
In Bengal, the death of BLO Shantimoni Ekka, 48, was reported from Rengamati in Malbazar. Her family said she had been juggling her duties as a BLO and as an anganwadi worker. Shantimoni’s husband Soko Ekka said: “The enumeration forms are in Bengali and this is a Hindi-speaking area. So many are filling in the wrong details. Shantimoni was under tremendous pressure.”
Soko said Shantimoni had tried to resign, but “the officer said that since her name was on duty, she could not pull out”. About 18.43% of the forms had been digitised in the state, where elections are due next, by Wednesday.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee posted about Shantimoni’s death, saying she “took her own life under the unbearable pressure of the SIR work”, slamming the EC for “the unplanned, relentless workload”. “A process that earlier took 3 years is now being forced into 2 months,” Banerjee wrote.
Another challenge in Bengal is that the UIDAI authorities have informed the EC that about 34 lakh Aadhaar card holders may be “deceased”. The BLOs have to ensure that these 34 lakh are not in the rolls.
Like BJP-ruled UP, action against BLOs has also been taken in Madhya Pradesh, though it is much better placed than its counterpart, with more than 22% of the SIR forms uploaded.
Sources said the SIR exercise in the state was hindered by delays involving printing of enumeration sheets, or due to incomplete voter data and lapses in administrative coordination. In some districts, after bundles of voter lists went missing, BLOs began verification work without the same.
As bottlenecks multiplied, in districts such as Raisen, Khandwa, Khargone, and Bhopal, several BLOs were suspended or penalized for negligence, absenteeism, and failure to meet verification targets. Some also saw salary deductions.
A BJP delegation met the Madhya Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) recently, offering suggestions on the SIR. Cabinet minister Rakesh Singh, who led the delegation, said they had raised concerns about delays in material supply and technical issues faced by the field staff.
Kerala, which has moved the Supreme Court seeking postponement of the SIR till after the local polls due early next month in the state, is among the worst-performing in terms of uploading of forms, with only 1.89% done till Wednesday. Kerala CEO Ratan U Kelkar said BLOs were now setting up hubs to collect the filled forms and digitise them, with the help of electoral registration officers.
With the suicide of a 38-year-old school employee working as a BLO on November 16 leading to protests in the state, Kelkar warned of action against “attempts to disrupt the work of BLOs”. “BLOs can seek police support,’’ he said.
Booth Level Agents of recognised political parties have also been allowed in the state to submit up to 50 applications per day, till the draft roles are prepared.
In Tamil Nadu, where the digitisation rate was 17.37% on Wednesday, Chennai Corporation has set up help desks. Officials, who refused to be named, described the same set of problems at every counter: electors struggling to provide the voter ID number and polling booth details of themselves, a parent or grandparent from before 2005 (when the last intensive revision was done in the state).
The problem was more acute in areas inhabited by low-income groups, officials said, adding that an estimated 40% voters per counter are failing matching with the 2005 rolls. A schoolteacher said: “In case people are away when we visit, that is another challenge as neither can we verify nor can they reach out to the help desks. We are making hundreds of calls every day to make sure that people submit forms or to ascertain their whereabouts.”
Another teacher, who talked about a shortage of hands at schools due to personnel being on SIR duty, however, acknowledged the “advantages”. “There are around 1,000 votes in this booth, but only about 600 voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. We found that there were 50 votes of people who had died. We could weed out those names,” she said.
The 12 states and UTs where the SIR is ongoing include Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Puducherry, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep. On Monday, the EC ordered a separate ‘Special Revision’ of electoral rolls in Assam, which goes to polls within months.
With inputs from Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Bhopal, Chennai