Locked doors, long walks, and nervy voters: A day in the life of a Kerala BLO

Mahesh, 45 (name changed), works with the Legal Metrology Department and currently serves as the Booth Level Officer (BLO) responsible for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) duties in Malappuram district, Kerala.

He is a native of Ponnani and, although he does not live in the ward where he is appointed, he is a registered voter there. This technicality is the reason he was assigned the BLO responsibility in that ward.

BLO’s suicide unsettles govt staff

The Federal met Mahesh after the suicide of Aneesh George, the BLO from Kannur district. The incident has deeply unsettled government staff across Kerala. Following the death, state government employees went on strike to protest the increasing workload placed on BLOs during strenuous SIR activities.

Also Read: After Kerala, BLO in Rajasthan dies by suicide; family alleges SIR pressure

It was in this climate of anxiety, exhaustion, and growing resentment that Mahesh described the realities of his daily routine and the pressure that accompanies the role.

Mahesh has responsibility for a ward section (part/booth in the ECI and local political vocabulary) with about 1,500 voters. For every voter, he must provide two forms, one copy for the voter and another for the Election Commission. Most BLOs carry the same burden, moving through large wards with stacks of paper that strain both their bags and their backs.

The challenges deepen once the forms are in hand and the search for voters begins. Mahesh opened his copy of the voter list to show how addresses are printed. One entry simply read as Mohammed Mustafa, son of Kunhimoideen, house number XYZ/10, age 72, male, resident of Ponnani. That was the entirety of the available information. No postal address or identifiable name of a house.

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“For instance, my voters’ list runs from serial numbers 1 to 1,489. I personally know more than 70 per cent of the voters in this ward, yet even then I’m unable to process more than 30 forms a day. It takes a minimum of 30 minutes to verify one family. There are bound to be duplications, and identifying them is tough. Many people hold multiple EPICs, and a BLO who isn’t familiar with the booth will struggle to spot these. That’s how people of all ages end up being listed as new voters. Tracking those who mistakenly used Form 6 (for new additions) instead of Form 8 (for corrections) has also become very difficult. We can verify this only if we already have their EPIC numbers,” said Mahesh.

Over the last two weeks, Mahesh works every day, including Sundays. An eight-hour shift on his scooter, and often on foot through the canal and field roads, moving from one disconnected home to another, rarely results in meeting more than a handful of voters.

The ground reality

This time I took him in my car and even with both of us navigating lanes and asking neighbours for clues, he managed to meet only 26 voters that day. However, he could collect completed forms from only a handful of voters. On paper, the math is simple. If he meets 50 voters a day, he can finish his booth in one month. But on the ground - the terrain, the scattered houses, the incomplete addresses, and the uncertainty behind every door - make such a target unrealistic.

What BLOs are now instructed to do is distribute the forms first and collect them later. According to Mahesh, this method may work in more affluent communities like flats and apartment complexes, but in rural areas, many people do not know how to fill out the forms. The BLO has to help them complete the forms and then take them back for uploading online.

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On the field, the obstacles continue. Many houses are locked. In some, dogs block entry. Some residents peek through a window but do not open the door. Others ask him to come back later because they are busy. A few question him relentlessly or treat him with suspicion.

‘Minority voters extremely anxious’

“Don’t take this as me being partisan, but minority voters seem extremely anxious and wary about the SIR exercise. Many believe that, over time, this could even affect their citizenship status. So they are very alert and come prepared with every document they have. But we can’t verify those at this stage, and that creates confusion and even friction between voters and BLOs,” says Mahesh.

Seventy-year-old Khadeeja had gathered every document she owned, including Aadhaar, EPIC, ration card, and even the title deed of her house, and kept them ready for the BLO, though none of these was required at this stage.

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“We don’t know what might happen, so it is better to be prepared with whatever we have,” says Khadeeja.

Her name appeared in the 2002 SIR list, but it was recorded as “Khadeejumma.

“Everyone calls me Khadeejumma, since it is a respectful way of addressing elders, and perhaps someone simply wrote it that way in the records back then,” she adds.

The BLO says her records will have to be cross-checked, and a proper link established, for her to be retained in the new list.

‘Cannot fully trust central govt’

Ibrahim, 37, an autorickshaw driver, shared similar concerns.

“After everything that happened with the CAA and NRC, we cannot fully trust the central government. I don’t dismiss what the Communists and the Congress are saying, that this could become a backdoor way to bring in the NRC. So we have to be cautious. But our political parties are not able to guide people now, because they are all busy with the panchayat elections. Maybe that is exactly what the central government wants,” he says.

As we moved between houses, Mahesh’s phone kept ringing. Every form carries the BLO’s mobile number, so voters call with doubts and clarifications through the day. He must find time to answer these while covering long distances and locating houses with minimal data.

Also Read: SIR: Tamil Nadu, Bengal lead in enumeration form distribution, Kerala lags behind

“Most of the questions relate to the ‘relative’ column in the old SIR list. A person can mention the name of a parent or even a grandparent there, because although it says ‘relative,’ there is no clear guideline. The official app given to BLOs does not even recognise spouses as relatives,” said Mahesh.

Mobility problem

Another challenge for BLOs is transportation. They have to carry bundles of forms, and Mahesh says he uses more than two litres of petrol every day. Over a month, he expects his fuel expenses alone to cross Rs 6,000. So far, there has been no official communication on whether these costs will be reimbursed.

Many BLOs do not own vehicles and walk long distances with stacks of forms. For them, the burden is even heavier. Mahesh says it is unclear how officials expect such workers to complete the task with the limited time and resources available.

Time-consuming

After distributing forms, BLOs still need to collect them, verify details, digitise entries, and complete follow-up procedures. None of these tasks are part of their regular roles, and they require significant time.

Throughout the day, it was clear that the BLOs benefit from the help of Booth Level Agents who know the houses in their locality. A few helped us identify homes, though most are busy with local body election work. Now that BLAs are also allowed to collect the forms and submit them to the BLO, political parties could have stepped in to help.

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But with Kerala in the middle of the LSG polls, all parties are fully occupied, and the deadline for distributing and collecting the SIR forms will end before the first phase of voting.

Personal cost of hurried SIR

Mahesh ended the day saying that if the voter list is not prepared correctly now, booth agents themselves will suffer during the next Assembly election.

If people’s names are missing, if houses are mapped incorrectly, and if the revisions are rushed, the democratic process will falter at the most basic level. And for BLOs like him, the personal cost of this hurried exercise has already begun to show.