Three BLOs die in UP, families allege dismissal threat, work pressure linked to voter list revision

Three booth-level officers in Uttar Pradesh have died in the past two days because of alleged work pressure related to the revision of voter rolls in the state.

While two died by suicide, one collapsed on duty.

The revision exercise is underway in 12 states and Union Territories, including Uttar Pradesh. Booth-level officers began distributing enumeration forms on November 4.

Gonda

Assistant Teacher Vipin Yadav died by suicide in Gonda district on Tuesday, The Hindu reported. His family alleged that the booth-level officer was under pressure because of the voter list revision exercise.

Yadav consumed poison and was taken to a local hospital. He was later transferred to a hospital in Lucknow, but was declared dead on arrival, The Times of India reported.

A video recorded by Yadav’s wife before his death showed him alleging that he was under extreme pressure from officials assigned to supervise the voter list revision exercise.

He also alleged that the sub-divisional magistrate and the block development officer routinely misbehaved with him, according to The Times of India.

District Magistrate Priyanka Niranjan rejected the allegations, saying that there was no pressure related to the revision exercise. Niranjan told the newspaper that Yadav’s work was progressing as normal.

She added that Yadav may have been instigated to make the allegations and that the video was being investigated.

Niranjan also formed a panel led by the assistant superintendent of police and the chief revenue officer to probe Yadav’s death.

Yadav’s family claimed that he had been asked to delete names of members of the Other Backward Classes community, The Hindu reported.

“The SDM and the BDO threatened him and asked him to remove the names of OBC voters,” the newspaper quoted his relative as having alleged in a video widely shared online. “Before dying, he told me over the phone that the officers were threatening to suspend him.”

The district administration rejected the allegation, The Hindu reported.

Fatehpur

Revenue clerk Sudhir Kumar died by suicide at his home in Fatehpur district’s Bindki on Tuesday, a day before he was to get married, The Indian Express reported.

The 35-year-old’s family alleged that he was threatened with dismissal for not completing his work as a supervisor of the revision exercise, the newspaper reported. The police have filed a first information report against senior officials on the charge of abetment to suicide.

His family said that Sudhir had secured the Lekhpal job in 2024 after years of struggle and was still on probation.

On Wednesday, the Lekhpal Association called for a boycott of work related to the voter roll revision from Thursday unless action was taken against those responsible for Kumar’s death, the newspaper reported.

Hemant Kumar Mishra, the station house officer of the Bindki police station, told The Indian Express that a case had been filed against the revenue officer and unnamed officials.

Ravendra, the district secretary of the Lekhpal Association, told the newspaper that the electoral registration officer organised a meeting on Sunday and all persons involved in the exercise were told to attend.

Kumar was unable to attend the meeting as he was busy with his wedding preparations. Ravendra alleged that the electoral registration officer said during the meeting that he was recommending Kumar’s suspension, The Indian Express reported.

Kumar’s sister told the police that he had been upset since Sunday after hearing about this.

On Tuesday morning, a revenue officer, who has been booked in the matter, allegedly told Kumar that he must complete his work before the deadline or that he would be suspended as the senior officers had instructed.

The revenue officer repeatedly threatened Kumar after the 35-year-old said that he was busy with his wedding preparation and that he would complete the work after the rituals were over, his sister was quoted as having alleged.

Bareilly

Primary school teacher Sarvesh Kumar Gangwar on Wednesday collapsed while on duty at his school in Bareilly district’s Pardholi village, The Indian Express reported. He was taken to hospital where the doctors declared him dead. He was a resident of Karmachari Nagar.

His family alleged that the 47-year-old, working as a booth-level officer, “was under immense [work] pressure” because of the voter list revision exercise, the newspaper reported.

His elder brother Yogesh Gangwar said that Sarvesh Kumar Gangwar had told him on Tuesday that “he was stressed due to the BLO duty”. Yogesh Gangwar is also a teacher and deployed as a supervisor in the revision exercise.

The newspaper quoted Pramod Kumar, the sub-divisional magistrate (Sadar), as saying that there has been no excessive pressure on the booth-level officers. “…As far as work pressure is concerned, this is not the case,” he was quoted as saying.

BLO suicides

The draft electoral rolls in the 12 states and Union Territories will be published on December 9. Voters can file claims and objections between December 9 and January 8, and hearings will be held until January 31. The final electoral rolls are to be published on February 7.

The task of preparing voter lists before elections is typically assigned to primary school teachers and anganwadi or health care workers, who are employed by state governments. They are required to go door-to-door and check the identities of new voters and verify the details of those who have died or permanently moved out of an area.

In the commission’s parlance, they are called booth-level officers. Each booth level officer is responsible for maintaining the voter list for one polling booth, which can sometimes have as many as 1,500 registered voters.

Besides Uttar Pradesh, several suspected suicides during the revision process have been reported in West Bengal, Kerala and Rajasthan.

More than 60 booth-level officers and seven supervisors were booked in Noida for allegedly failing to comply with orders from senior officials during the revision process, reports said on Monday.

In Bahraich district, the administration has ordered FIRs against five booth-level officers, withheld salaries of 42 personnel and suspended a village-level revenue officer for alleged negligence.

In Bihar, where the revision was completed ahead of the Assembly polls in November, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll published on September 30.

Concerns had been raised after the announcement in Bihar that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll. Several petitioners also moved the Supreme Court against it.