Arunachal CEO pushes political parties to speed up BLA appointments before voter roll revision

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Pawan Kumar Sain, on May 19, urged political parties to appoint booth-level agents (BLAs) for all polling stations to ensure a smooth and transparent Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls scheduled to begin from June 15.

Chairing a state-level coordination meeting at Nirvachan Bhawan, Sain expressed concern over the “low turnout” of party representatives and the slow pace of BLA appointments despite repeated appeals made during earlier meetings.

Arunachal Pradesh has 2,288 polling stations, and election officials said active participation by political parties is crucial to maintaining accurate and error-free voter lists. The Election Commission has included the state in the third phase of the nationwide SIR exercise.

Officials said the intensive revision has become necessary after nearly two decades due to rapid urbanisation, migration, duplicate entries and failure to remove names of deceased voters from electoral rolls.

According to the latest figures reviewed during the meeting, the BJP has appointed 2,286 BLAs, while the Congress has appointed 422. The People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA) has appointed 239 BLAs, the National People’s Party (NPP) 100, NCP 43 and NCP(A) 41, taking the total number of BLAs appointed across the state to 3,131.

Sain asked political parties to direct their district-level representatives to actively participate in meetings convened by district election officers and electoral registration officers during the revision process.

A detailed presentation on the SIR exercise was delivered during the meeting, covering training of election officials, distribution of enumeration forms, rationalisation of polling stations, publication of draft rolls, claims and objections, and release of the final electoral roll.

The meeting was attended by Joint Chief Electoral Officer Liken Koyu, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Shania Kayem Mize and representatives from the BJP, Congress, PPA and NPP.

Discussions also focused on legal provisions related to electoral roll revision under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, voter eligibility under Article 326 of the Constitution and citizenship provisions under the Citizenship Act, 1955.

Election officials cautioned that submitting false declarations related to electoral rolls is punishable under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, with imprisonment, fine or both.