Intensive Revision of Voter Lists: BLO Dies Due to Work Pressure

January 6, 2026

Abhishek Vij

The Supreme Court of India had clearly ruled that the Election Commission has the right to revise the voter lists before conducting new elections. India is the world’s largest democracy. A characteristic of this country is that general elections or state assembly elections are conducted without any unrest. A major complaint before every election was that the voter lists were not thoroughly reviewed and contained a large number of fraudulent voters. The Election Commission’s view was that the names of voters who had died, moved out of the state or country, or whose names appeared on multiple lists, should be investigated and removed.

This issue became very heated during the Bihar elections when the Election Commission revised the voter lists. The opposition raised concerns that the names of voters who did not support the ruling party were being removed. The number of such voters was in the millions. The matter went to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the Election Commission has the right to revise the voter lists, but this process should be smooth, convenient, and in the public interest. The Bihar elections have concluded, but some state assembly elections are still pending before the 2027 general elections. The Election Commission is rapidly carrying out the revision process in these states.

The work is also progressing at a rapid pace in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal because elections will be held there sooner. The revision process is also underway in other states. Reports indicate that revision workers are dying due to work pressure. Another revision worker died in Uttar Pradesh. Teacher Vineet Kumar was conducting booth-level inspection work in Kankerkheda, Meerut. He died of a heart attack due to working day and night on this intensive revision duty. There is a lot of uproar in West Bengal regarding the intensive revision of voter lists. There is a fear that a large number of names will be removed from the voter lists.
Mamata Didi is calling this process suspicious and says she will fight against it. 3234 centers have been set up across the state for this revision work. There are long queues in front of every center, and there is immense pressure of work. Last Sunday, a booth-level worker died in Bankura district of West Bengal.

The reason given was that he died due to work pressure. Even before this, wherever intensive revision of voter lists has taken place, there have been reports of deaths of BLOs (Booth Level Officers). This is worrying. On the other hand, the Election Commission’s order states that when the voter lists were digitized in Bengal in 2002, many names were left out due to technical problems. Now, the system is under even more pressure to accommodate those who want to be included in the voter list because their names are not found in any previous list. This is leading to increasing disputes. If this continues, how will accurate lists be completed? There is a fear that many voters will have their votes removed.

In fact, the last special intensive revision in West Bengal was done in 2002, in which many names were left out. Now, the problem of their names not being ‘registered’ is coming to the fore. This problem is recurring in the concerned states, and there is a fear that the names of millions of voters will be left out of the voter list. Due to the time constraints, the voter inspectors and booths are also under pressure to deliver accurate and error-free work. Isn’t the solution to this problem to create a permanent inspection machinery in the country that continuously scrutinizes these lists and keeps adding the names of eligible voters to the lists? Such last-minute action at breakneck speed often raises suspicions.