At a time when the Congress is part of the Opposition push for a debate in Parliament on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, latest Election Commission (EC) data accessed by The Indian Express shows that as of November 28, when figures were last updated, the party had not appointed Booth Level Agents (BLAs) for the exercise in at least 17 districts of Uttar Pradesh.
In UP, there are 1.62 lakh polling booths. According to data from the office of the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), the BJP had 1.6 lakh BLAs as on November 28 (98.37% of the booths), when the list was last updated; the Samajwadi Party (SP) had 1.42 lakh BLAs (87.46% booths), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) 1.38 lakh BLAs (85%), while the Congress had appointed 49,121 BLAs (30.23% of booths).
A BLA works directly with the EC’s Booth Level Officer (BLO) and is mandated with verifying voter data, reporting discrepancies such as voters who have shifted to a different address or have passed away, and safeguarding their party’s interests. Political parties have directed their BLAs to keep watch on the exercise and ensure that voters from communities that are their base do not get deleted.
Congress has not appointed BLAs in 17 districts
EC data shows the Congress has not appointed BLAs in Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Ambedkar Nagar, Auraiya, Bahraich, Ballia, Bhadohi, Hamirpur, Kannauj, Kanpur Dehat, Kaushambi, Mathura, Mau, Sant Kabir Nagar, Shahjahanpur, Shamli, and Sultanpur. Congress’s Saharanpur city president Manish Tyagi said the party sent the list of BLAs to the EC after November 28. Ambedkar Nagar district president Krishna Kumar Yadav said he had asked the Assembly constituency in-charges for the list of BLA appointed.
In Prayagraj district, where the Congress won the Lok Sabha elections last year from the Prayagraj seat, the BJP and the SP have appointed BLAs in all 4,713 polling booths. In the Congress bastion of Rae Bareli, the constituency of Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, the party has appointed 2,222 BLAs out of a total of 2,242 booths, while both the SP and the BJP again have BLAs in all booths.
Amethi, Badaun, Chitrakoot, Lalitpur, Pilibhit, and Shrawasti are the only districts where Congress has BLAs in all the booths, while the BJP has BLAs in 100% of booths in 54 of the state’s 75 districts and the SP in 34.
Congress spokesperson Anshu Awasthi blamed the delay in BLA appointment on guidelines issued by district election officers. “In the review meeting of SIR held on November 27, the leadership directed us to appoint BLAs to all booths by December 5 and we will meet that deadline. The high command has directed all the senior leaders to supervise the SIR process and the work of BLAs,” Awasthi said. AICC secretary Dhiraj Gurjar chaired the review meeting in Lucknow.
However, at the heart of the Congress problem is its organisational weakness in UP, a state where its revival is of utmost importance, as the road to power in Delhi often passes through the state. Eight of 14 PMs to date have been elected from Uttar Pradesh, including PM Narendra Modi, whose constituency is Varanasi.
The party has struggled to revive in the state over the years, with the basic organisational structure still not in place. A party leader said the Pradesh, district, city, and block committees of the Congress had remained dissolved for the past year.
“There is a state president, but no state committee for over a year. District presidents have been appointed in the past few months, but they have yet to constitute District Congress Committees. It is a similar condition in blocks and booths. When the party is in such a state, how can it rope in workers for a crucial exercise such as SIR?” said a party leader.
A Congress leader in Ayodhya blamed the Pradesh Congress Committee members were not taking an interest in SIR and organisational work. In the 2,053 booths in Ayodhya district, only the BSP has appointed BLAs in all booths. The BJP has appointed 2,004 BLAs, the SP 1,936 and the Congress only 485.
“Meetings of block teams have not been held for the past seven years. Issues of local units are not listened to. Many of the leaders who were involved in the exercise are either slow or not interested. Many of our workers are busy farming their fields; these are the practical problems on the ground,” said the functionary from Ayodhya.
Another senior leader said, “There is a lack of motivation and energy among workers and district leaders about taking up tasks related to SIR. The party has not been in power here for a very long time. Also, communication between office-bearers and ground workers is not regular. There is a need to bridge that gap.”