BENGALURU: Karnataka’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls continues to flout Election Commission of India guidelines, with booth level officers (BLOs) increasingly replacing mandatory door-todoor verification with centralised camps despite a recent warning from the state’s chief electoral officer (CEO).Burdened by the task of carrying kilos of paper for documentation and under pressure from local MLAs, resident welfare associations and political functionaries, many BLOs are conducting voter verification at schools, community halls and places of worship instead of visiting homes.
This forces voters to travel to those centres to complete the process, despite CEO V Anbukkumar’s explicit warning that BLOs must conduct door-to-door verification.BLOs are seen carrying bags weighing up to 8kgA stack of 500 enumeration forms weighs nearly 4kg. With some BLOs assigned more than 1,000 households, transporting the paperwork has become a significant operational challenge. In Lakkasandra, young BLOs were seen carrying bags weighing up to 8kg.While centralised camps ease the workload for understaffed field staff, they shift the responsibility for verification from the state to citizens. Both governing Congress and opposition BJP have accused each other of attempting to influence the exercise.The practice has opened the door to political manipulation. In several Congressheld urban constituencies, netas have reportedly organised enumeration camps at govt schools, temples and mosques, with transport arranged in some cases to bring residents to BLO desks.In BJP strongholds and gated communities, party workers allegedly coordinated with apartment management committees to restrict BLO operations to clubhouses while controlling residents’ access to officials.In one gated community on Kanakapura Road with more than 500 flats, residents were told the BLO would distribute and collect forms at the clubhouse between 11am and 4pm. The arrangement triggered allegations of political interference, with residents claiming a BJP booth worker was managing the process.Former deputy CM KS Eshwarappa alleged mass voter registration drives were being conducted at certain places of worship in violation of ECI guidelines.
