Legal action against families submitting forms in dead voters’ names: Election Commission

Kolkata: The Election Commission (EC) will take legal steps against any concerned family if it is found that an enumeration form has been filled up in the name of any dead voter. The person whose signature will be found in such a form may face imprisonment upto a year under section 32 of Representation of People’s (RP) Act.

In an order issued by the EC on Tuesday, it is stated that the Booth Level Agent (BLA) is expected to scrutinise the entries in the draft roll of the Part for which he/ she is appointed as BLA to identify electors who are dead or have shifted. As per the rules, normally a BLA may be appointed for each Para of the electoral roll.

The BLA should be a registered elector in the relevant Part for the electoral roll for which he/ she is appointed.

In case of unavailability of BLA from the same Part of the electoral roll, BLA may be appointed from any registered elector of the same Assembly Constituency.

The Commission has asked the state CEO to implement the RP Act stringently while conducting the SIR in the state.

The state CEO office has received some complaints from ‘Votekarmi and BLO Aikya Manch’ that in South Kolkata, South and North 24-Parganas, Murshidabad, North Dinajpur, a section of BLAs have been pressurising the BLO to hand over enumeration forms of dead voters to the family members. On Monday, there were allegations that a BJP BLA was assaulted over the issue at Tarakeswar. The BLOs have been advised that if they come across any such forms filled up in the name of dead voter he / she has to submit the form as ‘non-recommended’ through the BLO app.

If the name of a dead voter figures in the final electoral roll then the concerned BLO, ERO and the person responsible for filling up such form will face legal action. According to the state CEO office, over 6.40 crore enumeration forms have been distributed till 4 pm with 5.71 lakh forms being submitted in online mode.