MP: Congress alleges lack of preparation for SIR, BLOs not carrying electoral forms

Bhopal, Nov 4 (IANS) The Congress in Madhya Pradesh, on Tuesday, levelled allegation on the Election Commission of India (ECI), claiming that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state has begun without preparation.

The Congress justified its allegations on ECI, claiming that most of the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) appointed for conducting the SIR exercise were yet to reach at booths located in remote areas in Madhya Pradesh.

"BLOs were supposed to start distributing electoral forms during door-to-door visit from today (Tuesday) but it could happen. It has noticed that in many places, BLOs have been sent without electoral forms, which shows that the ECI wasn't fully prepared for SIR," former Minister Sajjan Singh Verma said.

Verma, who has been appointed as head of the Congress's eight-member panel to look after the SIR process in the state, talking to IANS on Tuesday said that Congress is fully prepared for the SIR exercise in every district and booth in Madhya Pradesh.

"The way this SIR exercise began on Tuesday, it clearly shows that the ECI wasn't fully prepared for it. The Congress has appointed its teams in every district and booths to keep a close watch on BLOs," the Congress leader told IANS.

After providing training to more than 65,000 BLOs, who have been tasked for conducting a door-to-door visit for verification of voters, have started visting their assigned booths.

Madhya Pradesh has total 230 Assembly seats and 29 Lok Sabha constituencies from the 55 districts divided into six divisions such as Bhopal, Gwalior, Indore, Jabalpur, Chambal, Narmadapuram, Rewa, Sagar, Shahdol and Ujjain.

The voter list in Madhya Pradesh was already frozen after the ECI announced the SIR in state on October 27, which means no new changes can made without verification from the BLO appointed by the ECI.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Sanjeev Jha, has instructed district collectors, commissioner and other senior officials to monitor the SIR process closely and ensure that not a single eligible electorate is missed from verification.

CEO Jha has shared that the BLOs will not seek any documents from eligible voters, they are supposed to just distribute forms and record the information received during door-to-door visit.

However, the CEO also clarified that BLOs will only collect documents in case the voter's record does not match the earlier database.

In such cases, the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) will issue a notice to seek documents separately.

--IANS

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