West Bengal's Election Preparation Hits Major Roadblock
Even with the Election Commission of India extending the Special Intensive Revision schedule by an additional week, Booth Level Officers throughout West Bengal are confronting an unprecedented challenge that's significantly increasing their workload. A growing number of voters are refusing to return completed enumeration forms, forcing BLOs to conclude days of intensive fieldwork by marking large batches of voters as "not found" in the system.
District-Wide Crisis Intensifies
Across multiple districts in Bengal, BLOs report that the problem has dramatically escalated during the past two weeks, adding substantial pressure to an already stretched electoral revision exercise. Many officers express frustration that they're ending each working day with dozens of incomplete entries despite their best efforts.
Numan Naskar, a BLO from Amdanga in North 24 Parganas, provided specific details about his experience. "There are a total of 850 voters in my assigned booth. Among them, seven individuals never returned their forms despite multiple home visits. I ultimately had to upload data for the remaining 843 voters while marking these seven as 'not found'," Naskar explained.
Multiple Cases of Non-Cooperation Emerge
Another BLO, Subhadeep Ghosh from Maheshtala, managed to complete the distribution, collection, and digital submission of forms by last week but encountered similar obstacles. Ghosh, responsible for Part 225 under the Maheshtala assembly constituency containing 799 voters, reported that seven voters failed to submit their forms and remained untraceable.
"These seven individuals frequently travel between West Bengal and their native homes in Bihar and have demonstrated non-cooperative behavior since the beginning of the process. With no other options remaining, I closed their files marking them as untraceable," Ghosh stated.
In Shyampukur, Somen Seal successfully completed over 90% of his assigned work but faced significant delays due to unreturned forms. "Some voters have set December 4 as their target date for form return, while others have traveled to different states while still possessing the enumeration forms. This has made reaching them impossible and consequently delayed the entire revision process," Seal elaborated.
Persistent Challenges Despite Initial Success
An anonymous BLO working in the Sovabazar area described a particularly frustrating situation. "While form distribution proceeded smoothly, serious trouble began during the collection phase. Although most voters cooperated by returning forms promptly, 16 forms became untraceable because the household where I distributed them is now permanently locked," the officer revealed.
The BLO continued, "I made at least four separate visits to the location, but never found anyone present. Neighbors couldn't provide any information about the family's whereabouts. Under these circumstances, I had no choice but to close the process with a 'not found' notation since waiting indefinitely wasn't a feasible option."
The growing pattern of non-cooperation from voters, combined with the logistical challenges of tracking mobile populations, has created a perfect storm for West Bengal's election preparation machinery. With the extended deadline still proving insufficient for complete voter enumeration, the Election Commission faces mounting pressure to address these systemic issues before the upcoming elections.
