Rohini voter agent aids electoral roll drive as party helpers remain missing elsewhere
During the ongoing special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Delhi, a polling booth in Rohini emerged as a rare exception where an active booth-level agent (BLA) assisted election officers, even as political party agents remained largely absent across the rest of the city. The month-long door-to-door exercise, which began on June 30 across 13,033 polling booths in Delhi's 70 Assembly constituencies, has faced challenges due to a widespread shortage of active party-appointed BLAs.
The absence of BLAs has resulted in low awareness among residents and increased the workload of Booth Level Officers (BLOs), who are forced to spend extra time explaining the process and helping citizens fill out forms.
However, in Rohini, a local BLO credited a dedicated BLA for making the process significantly smoother. According to the officer, the active BLA has been going door-to-door to spread awareness and identify electors who have shifted or died. Despite this local success, another party-appointed BLA for the same Rohini booth had not contacted the officer or residents, and around 10 neighboring booths in the area reported little to no BLA presence.
Citywide, political parties have appointed thousands of agents, with the BJP appointing 12,809 BLAs, Congress 10,698, and AAP 9,290. These agents are meant to assist citizens in filling out enumeration forms, find names in previous rolls, and ensure genuine voters are not deleted. They are permitted to submit up to 50 enumeration forms per day on behalf of residents before the draft roll is published.
In other parts of Delhi, such as Mehrauli and Malviya Nagar, BLOs reported major difficulties due to the lack of active agents. In one Mehrauli area, the only appointed BLA, who works as a cab driver, noted that staying at the booth all day would cause him to lose his daily earnings.
While the Delhi CEO office provided training to BLAs ahead of the exercise, election officials clarified that BLAs are not officially mandated by the administration. Instead, their participation is encouraged by the Election Commission to ensure transparency and support BLOs.
Delhi BJP President Harsh Malhotra stated that over 12,000 of their registered BLA-2 representatives have been engaged in voter verification. Delhi Congress general secretary Anil Bhardwaj also stated that their agents were trained and instructed to be active, promising immediate action if any are found not working.
