Pune: Many urban voters, worried that the BLOs have not met them, say they are being called to verification camps instead of them conducting the house-to-house visit mandated by the State Chief Electoral Officer. The SIR 2026 exercise ends next Saturday in Maharashtra, if no extension is granted.The challenge is particularly acute in Pune district, where nearly 8,000 BLOs are verifying around 90 lakh electors, including 5.16 lakh in the absent-shifted-dead (ASD) category requiring physical verification.Officials estimate another 15-20% of electors could be difficult to trace because they have moved residence, their addresses are incomplete or they are unavailable despite repeated visits.Kondhwa resident S S Chavan said his BLO called him. “Most people in our society are at work during the day. We were told to visit the camp with our enumeration forms instead,” he said.Similar experiences are being reported from Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai, where residents said they received phone calls or WhatsApp messages but no doorstep visit yet. “We received a message telling us to come to the camp,” a resident of Kharghar said.A Thane resident said most working professionals are away during the day, making BLO visits futile, while a Powai resident said several neighbours were still unaware they had to submit the enumeration forms.Resident welfare associations and civil society groups said the increasing reliance on camps was defeating the objective of physical verification, particularly in urban areas where many senior citizens and first-time participants were unaware of the exercise.Activist Ulka Mahajan, national convenor of Bharat Jodo Abhiyan, said nearly 20 civil society organisations monitoring the exercise received complaints that many voters have yet to be contacted.This BLO has 1,300 voters and has reached out to 780 so far. Another BLO with 700 voters has completed only 380 because voters are not in the mentioned addresses and it is difficult to track them.Another BLO said digitisation is a super challenge. “Some voters collect the forms but do not submit them. Others assure us they will come to the camp but never turn up. We have to keep calling them while completing digitisation and our regular duties,” he said.The support from booth-level agents of political parties is not as expected. Congress leaders have in their submission to the CEO’s office, demanded a month’s extension.“Uttar Pradesh has been granted four extensions during a similar exercise, Maharashtra has 9.78 crore voters and also deserves additional time,’’ a senior Congress leader said. With the exercise being undertaken after many years, every effort must be made to ensure a clean voter roll, he added. “The rains and wari disrupted the drive and now in the coming month political leaders can focus on the drive,” he added.Deputy district election officer Minal Kalaskar said all BLOs had been instructed to intensify door-to-door verification, especially for voters in the ASD category and those who could not be contacted earlier because of incomplete or incorrect addresses.Digitisation Slow In Urban DistrictsFive urban districts have improved forms’ distribution but trail the rural districts in digitisationMumbai City, Mumbai Suburban, Thane, Pune, Nagpur which cover 3.15 crore electors, now show 78.9% distribution and 48.9% digitisationThe remaining 31 districts have finished 97.6% distribution and reached 79% digitisation, about 30 percentage points ahead of urban districts on both countsUrban Districts I Distribution I DigitisationMumbai City 83.3 50Mumbai Suburban 78.5 45.3Thane 77.4 40Pune 75.9 55.5Nagpur 85.6 56Hingoli leads with 99.9% distribution, 89.1% digitisationClose to 10 crore voters state as per the 2026 electoral rolls will be covered by SIR before Aug 8This is a massive exercise involving nearly 10 crore voters. Even two months would not have been enough to complete it. In many urban pockets, pre-SIR mapping itself was inadequate, increasing the burden on BLOs. The ground covered remains limited and the pace is slow. There is a genuine concern that many eligible voters may remain out of the draft rollsUlka Mahajan I National Convenor of Bharat Jodo AbhiyanCamps are a practical necessity rather than a replacement for house-to-house verification. We do visit homes. But in cities, flats remain locked for most of the day, tenants keep changing and many addresses are incomplete. After repeated unsuccessful visits, we call voters, send WhatsApp messages and tell them to come to the campA BLO from PuneVoters should cooperate with BLOs and submit their enumeration forms before Aug. 8. Those who have not yet been contacted can identify their designated BLO through the Pune collectorate website and complete the process. Around 15-20% of voters may face deletion from electoral rolls if they do not submit the formsMinal Kalaskar i Deputy district election officer
