UP Parties Lag in Appointing Booth-Level Agents as Special Voter List Revision Nears Deadline

Political parties have not shown their seriousness over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Uttar Pradesh and have failed to participate in a big way. Except the BJP, Samajwadi Party, BSP and other parties are not taking much interest in SIR, sources said.

However, the SIR process is smoothly moving ahead in UP, and around 85 per cent of the total 15.44 crore voters' enumeration forms have been digitized so far, Election Commission sources said.

The country's oldest party, the Indian National Congress, doesn't even have a Booth Level Agent (BLA) in 17 districts of Uttar Pradesh.

Similarly, the principal opposition Samajwadi Party does not have any BLA in Rampur district, the stronghold of Mohammad Azam Khan, while the BSP has no BLA in Kanpur Nagar district.

The BJP, too, is not lagging behind as it could not find any BLAs in 2,643 booths, mostly in the minority-dominated areas.

After Booth Level Officers (BLOs), Booth Level Agents (BLAs) are the most important link for political parties in the SIR.

Observers said during Lok Sabha or Assembly elections, BLAs play crucial roles for political parties in everything -- from booth management to bringing voters to the polling station. It is believed that the political party with the best booth management can achieve favourable election results.

UP Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa told UNI on Wednesday that the poll panel has repeatedly requested parties to appoint their BLAs and provide the panel with a list so that SIR's work can be carried out more smoothly.

Rinwa said ECI held a meeting with the representatives of political parties before the start of the SIR, but even after the assurance, they failed to act.

According to information received from the ECI, a total of 4,91,115 BLAs have been appointed by political parties for SIR at 1,62,486 booths in UP.

The highest number of BLAs has been appointed by the BJP (1,59,843), followed by the SP (1,42,121), the BSP (1,38,681), the Congress (49,121), Apna Dal (S) (1056), the CPI (M) (208), and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) at 85 booths.

According to sources, nearly 70 per cent of the booths do not have a single BLA of Congress. There is not a single BLA of Congress at any of the booths in Ambedkar Nagar, Auraiya, Bahraich, Ballia, Bhadohi, Hamirpur, Jhansi, Kannauj, Kaushambi, Mathura, Mau, Prayagraj, Saharanpur, Sant Kabir Nagar, Shahjahanpur, Shamli, and Sultanpur districts.

At the same time, in five districts, Congress has BLAs at fewer than a hundred booths. There are 70 BLAs in Sonbhadra, 80 in Kushinagar, 93 in Hapur, 83 in Fatehpur, and 35 in Etawah.

However, UP Congress president Ajay Rai said the party will appoint BLAs at 95 per cent of booths till December 11, the last date for submission of the enumeration forms for SIR by the voters.

The BSP has appointed BLAs at 138,681 (85.34 per cent) of the 162,484 booths. However, Kanpur Nagar is the only district where the BSP does not have a single BLA.

Similarly, the Samajwadi Party doesn't have a single BLA in the Rampur district, the stronghold of Mohammad Azam Khan. The Samajwadi Party has appointed BLAs at 142,121 (87.46 percent) of the 162,486 booths.

Even the BJP has no BLAs at 2,643 booths in UP. Out of 1,62,486 booths in UP, the BJP has booth-level agents only at 1,59,843 booths. This is the situation when the BJP has been in power at the Centre for the last over 11 years and in UP for more than eight years.

Among the NDA partners, except Apna Dal( Sonelal), others like the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), SBSP, NISHAD Party, and Jansatta Party have not appointed a single BLA for the SIR. Apna Dal (S) has appointed over 1,000 BLAs in selected booths.