At least four booth level officers (BLOs) engaged by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal were admitted at hospitals in various districts between Saturday and Sunday after they complained of illness caused by work pressure.
The incidents happened just hours after a third BLO died in the state on Saturday, triggering a political row in the state. The 53-year-old para teacher from Chapra in Nadia district was the second BLO to die by suicide, and she even left a note allegedly blaming the ECI.
Sukdeb Das, the BLO for polling booth No 147 at Katwa town in East Burdwan district, was admitted at the government subdivisional hospital on Sunday.
“The work pressure is so intense that I was feeling unwell and even dizzy at times. Collecting the enumeration forms from voters is taking long hours and after that we have to feed the data online. Can anyone work for 18 hours a day?” Das told reporters from his hospital bed.
Anirban Basu, the subdivisional officer (SDO) of Katwa denied the charges of putting excess pressure on BLOs.
“We are only following the guidelines of the ECI. He could not collect the forms on time and I went to the field with him on Friday to help him,” Basu told the media.
In similar incidents, Tanushree Haldar Naiya, the BLO for booth No 19 at Sonarpur in South 24 Parganas district and Kamal Naskar, the BLO for booth No 31 at the same district’s Joynagar were hospitalized on Saturday night.
In Murshidabad district’s Jangipur, Kaushik Ghosh, a BLO, had to be hospitalised on Saturday after he collapsed, his wife Anjana Ghosh, told reporters.
In the north Bengal region, Mostafa Kamal, a BLO from Islampur in North Dinajpur district was admitted at the Islampur hospital on Saturday.
“The target given to us for uploading the online data is impossible. I am doing it from the hospital now,” Kamal told the local media.
State chief electoral officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal did not comment on these incidents.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar last week asking the SIR to be put on hold in West Bengal in view of the pressure BLOs were complaining about.
“Profoundly shocked to know of the death of yet another BLO, a lady para- teacher, who has committed suicide at Krishnanagar today. BLO of part number 201 of AC 82 Chapra, has blamed ECI in her suicide note before committing suicide at her residence today,” Banerjee wrote on X on Saturday.
Assembly polls in Bengal are expected to be held around March-April 2026. The state has around 76 million voters. There are around 80,681 polling booths and an equal number of BLOs.
Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member Kalyan Banerjee targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party and the ECI saying its leaders were creating pressure on the BLOs.
“Inhuman pressure is being created on the BLOs by ECI. And the BJP leaders are using the ECI,” Banerjee said.
Denying the allegation, Bengal BJP spokesperson Debjit Sarkar said : “Banerjee has lost his mind because it is the TMC that is under pressure. People of Bengal do not believe in these allegations. They want the SIR.”
Many BLOs across Bengal complained about work pressure and even staged protests over the past weeks.
Tapati Biswas, an Anganwadi worker entrusted with the SIR in Hooghly district’s Konnagar town was hospitalised on Wednesday after she suffered a cerebral attack, doctors said.
In the adjoining North 24 Parganas, Suman Das, the BLO for booth No 203 at Maslandapur was admitted at the Habra hospital on Wednesday.
“He could not take the pressure and blacked out,” Ayan Das, his brother, told the local media.
These two incidents happened hours after a female BLO died by suicide on Wednesday morning in the Mal area of Jalpaiguri district with her family claiming that she could not handle work pressure.
The first BLO to die in Bengal was Namita Hansda from the Memari community block in East Burdwan district. She died of a cerebral attack on November 9. Madhab Hansda, her husband alleged that she was under stress.
