Over 8k BLAs needed for SIR in Pune dist but parties show little haste

Pune: Political parties in Pune district are lagging in appointing booth-level agents (BLAs) for the upcoming Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls despite the administration requiring over 8,000 personnel for the exercise.Pune district collector and district election officer Jitendra Dudi told TOI that repeated appeals have been made to parties. “We have told them to complete the appointments at the earliest so that work can proceed smoothly,” Dudi said.Deputy election officer Minal Kalaskar said political parties were required to formally appoint BLAs for every polling station. “We have 8,417 polling booths in Pune district and each party must appoint an equal number of agents. Once the appointments are made, the details have to be submitted to the election office. Only then can these agents assist booth-level officers (BLOs) in the Special Intensive Revision work,” she said.Kalaskar added that several parties have to complete the process before the June 20 deadline. “These political agents can assist BLOs during household visits as part of the SIR exercise,” she said.The district administration will undertake the SIR drive to update and clean electoral rolls across Pune district under the directions of the Election Commission of India. Around 91.16 lakh voter records will be physically verified through door-to-door visits between June 30 and July 29.During the exercise, BLOs will verify voter details including names, addresses, photographs and other particulars. Entries under the “Absent, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate” category will also be scrutinised.Officials said around 51.41 lakh electors have so far been mapped in Pune district out of the total 91.15 lakh voters.According to the schedule released by the election officials printing of enumeration forms and BLO training will be conducted between June 20 and June 29. The draft electoral roll will be published on Aug 5, while claims and objections can be filed till Sept 4. The final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on Oct 7.Data with the district administration shows that political parties have so far appointed only a fraction of the required BLAs.In Pune district, the BJP has appointed 2,746 BLAs, followed by the NCP with 984, NCP (SP) with 658, Shiv Sena with 400 and Congress with 204.Shiv Sena (UBT) has appointed 28 BLAs, while the MNS has appointed just one. AAP and Samajwadi Party have yet to appoint any agent.Maharashtra has 1,00,253 polling booths. BJP has named 52,215 BLAs, Shiv Sena 17,800, Congress 17,421, Shiv Sena (UBT) 10,140 and the NCP (SP) 4,468.In the state, electoral roll mapping has reached 72%, with seven crore electors of the 9.86 crore voters mapped.A state election officials said BLOs will visit every household from June 30 to July 29 to verify whether the mapping has been completed.A party functionary said they will initiate the BLA naming process soon. “We are already carrying out the work and we will adhere to the deadline,” he added.