Bihar Voter List Revision: Parties Boost Booth-Level Agent Numbers; BJP & RJD Account For 65%
Since the special intensive revision (SIR) was announced on June 24, the number of BLAs has grown by 13 per cent, from 1.38 lakh to 1.56 lakh
Political parties in Bihar have significantly increased the deployment of booth-level agents (BLAs) during the ongoing voter list revision, official data accessed by News18 shows.
Since the special intensive revision (SIR) was announced on June 24, the number of BLAs has grown by 13 per cent, from 1.38 lakh to 1.56 lakh.
Data from the Election Commission of India (ECI) shows that of the 1.56 lakh BLAs supporting the drive, the BJP, RJD, and JD(U) contribute the highest numbers.
The BJP (52,689) has the highest number of BLAs in the state. Before the start of the process, the number was 51,964.
Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has increased the number of BLAs from 47,143 to 47,504 since the process of SIR started.
The BJP and RJD collectively account for more than one lakh BLAs, or about 65%.
The ruling Janata Dal (United) has hiked the number of BLAs by 24 per cent, from 27,931 to 34,669, since the intensive revision has started.
With 16,500 BLAs, the Congress is in the fourth position. The party has doubled the number of BLAs, from 8,586 earlier, since the SIR was announced.
The poll body has welcomed the involvement of the agents and had earlier said that the parties could increase the number of BLAs if they wished.
The SIR is underway in Bihar, ahead of the scheduled assembly polls around November.
The poll body has said that this will help in cleaning the electoral rolls, which have faced multiple questions in the last couple of elections.
The opposition parties, including the RJD, have approached the Supreme Court against the drive. They said the revision exercise would lead to the removal of lakhs of names from voter lists, and women and the underprivileged will be worst hit.
The apex court will hear the matter on Thursday.
Smaller parties also hike deployment
For the SIR, smaller parties have also ramped up participation, though at a lower absolute scale.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has increased the number of BLAs by about eight times, from 76 before SIR to 578 now.
Next in line is the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation [CPI(ML)L] that has raised the BLAs from 233 to 1,271.
BSP has increased the BLAs by about three times, from 26 to 74.
Also, two national parties—the National People's Party (three) and Aam Aadmi Party (one)—have also deployed BLAs for the first time in the state.
Why are BLAs important?
The booth-level agents appointed by all national and state political parties act as a first point of contact between a political party and a voter.
Operating at the grassroots—the polling booth level—they are responsible for ensuring their respective party's interests are protected and that everything is happening as per the rules.
BLAs are involved with the ECI before, during, and after the elections.
For voter list verification, it is the BLAs that help the parties ensure the accuracy of electoral rolls by verifying the inclusion, deletion, and correction of voter details in their assigned booths.
They prevent bogus or duplicate entries and can raise objections to suspicious names.
More than 57% enumeration forms collected by ECI in just 15 days
On Wednesday, the poll body announced that as of 6 pm, more than 57 per cent of the enumeration forms had been collected.
Countering the claims and allegations that the poll body is not providing sufficient time, the ECI shared that progress has been achieved in the first 15 days of the exercise, with 16 more days left.
'By 6 pm today, 4.53 crore enumeration forms, which is 57.48% of the total of 7.90 crore existing electors in Bihar, have been collected," the poll body said.
In the last 24 hours, 83.12 lakh enumeration forms have been collected, which amounts to 10.52% in a single day.
The poll body also assured that if the same momentum is maintained on the field and about 42.5% of the forms are collected, the exercise of gathering the enumeration forms could be completed well before the stipulated deadline of July 25.
As the voter list revision process gathers pace, the Election Commission maintains that greater participation by political parties and timely fieldwork will ensure cleaner and more accurate electoral rolls for the upcoming elections.
About the Author
Nivedita Singh
Nivedita Singh is a data journalist and covers the Election Commission, Indian Railways and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. She has nearly seven years of experience in the news media. She tweets @nived...Read More
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