BLOs stage sit-in at Sahebganj BDO office over voter deletions, ‘inhuman’ workload under SIR
Cooch Behar: Members of the BLO Protection Committee of Dinhata Block-2 staged a sit-in protest on Friday at the Sahebganj BDO office, condemning the State Election Commission’s rapid process of cancelling valid voters and the resulting excessive workload for Booth Level Officers (BLOs).
The protesters allege that the Commission, allegedly influenced by the BJP, is using the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process as a pretext to remove legitimate voters from the electoral rolls. They say the process has imposed an “inhuman” burden on BLOs, who are tasked with addressing thousands of voter notices. In the Dinhata assembly constituency alone, around 42,000 voters have been issued “logical discrepancy” notices. North Bengal Development Minister Udayan Guha strongly criticised the Election Commission, calling the practice “unprecedented” and politically motivated. “Approximately 14 per cent of voters in Dinhata are being summoned for hearings, which is unusual. Similar discrepancies are not being raised in Bihar.
West Bengal alone is being deliberately targeted. The Election Commission is conspiring to arbitrarily remove voters at the behest of the central ruling party, the BJP,” Guha said, sarcastically dubbing the Commission as the “birth control minister.”
The issuance of these notices has created a stir in local political circles, with opposition parties raising concerns over irregularities in the voter list.
Mass resignations by BLOs have already been reported in several blocks across one or two districts of West Bengal, and the current protest is part of a wider pattern of dissent at the block level. BLOs across various districts are now organising to challenge the directives and highlight the workload issues arising from the SIR process.
The Sahebganj sit-in marks the latest episode in this ongoing dispute, reflecting growing tension between the Election Commission and local electoral staff over voter list management in the state.
