A series of deaths and health-related incidents involving staff deployed for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in multiple states has triggered alarm, even as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday launched a sharp attack on the Election Commission, calling the ongoing exercise 'chaotic, coercive and dangerous'.
In Gujarat's Kheda district, a 50-year-old school teacher working as a Block Level Officer (BLO) died of a heart attack, with his family alleging that 'excessive work pressure' linked to SIR duties led to his death.
Rameshbhai Parmar, a resident of Jambudi village and a teacher in Navapura, returned home late after completing BLO work and continued paperwork until 11.30 pm due to poor mobile connectivity, his brother said.
He was found unresponsive the next morning. The family claimed he had been 'under pressure' due to the intensive revision work. District officials were unavailable for comment.
In Rajasthan's Karauli district, a 45-year-old school lecturer deployed as an SIR supervisor died after complaining of sudden chest pain on Wednesday night.
The family of Santram Saini alleged he had been under severe mental stress due to SIR-related workload and a notice he had recently received.
Police said no formal complaint was filed. The incident came a day after another BLO on SIR duty died of a heart attack in Sawai Madhopur.
In West Bengal, the EC relieved a BLO in Hooghly from SIR duties after she suffered a cerebral attack during fieldwork.
Tapati Biswas, an anganwadi worker serving as a BLO in Konnagar, collapsed on Wednesday and was diagnosed with paralysis on her left side. Her husband claimed she had been under significant pressure due to ongoing SIR tasks.
As these incidents fuelled wider concern over the pace and handling of the revision exercise, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote a strongly worded three-page letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, urging him to immediately halt what she described as an 'unplanned, dangerous' and 'structurally unsound' process.
Saying she was 'compelled to write', Banerjee alleged that the SIR had 'crippled the system from day one', citing gaps in training, confusion over required documents, and the 'near-impossibility' of BLOs meeting voters amid their livelihood commitments.
Many BLOs, she said, were struggling with faulty online submissions and repeated data mismatches, increasing the risk of disenfranchisement.
The chief minister warned that the human cost had become 'unbearable', pointing to the suicide of an anganwadi worker in Jalpaiguri and claiming that 'several others have lost their lives since this process began'.
She said a revision that once took three years had been 'forcibly compressed into three months', creating 'inhuman working conditions' and a climate of fear.
The Bharatiya Janata Party dismissed her allegations, accusing the TMC of trying to obstruct a lawful process.
Union minister Sukanta Majumdar said no amount of 'theatrics or falsehoods' could derail the SIR and alleged that Banerjee was uncomfortable with an exercise that 'exposes her politics of infiltration'.
The TMC countered that the EC was acting with 'inhuman haste', claiming the poll panel had shown 'no sympathy' for the deaths of BLOs and alleging that 30 people in Bengal had died by suicide or heart attack fearing the loss of their voting rights.
The Election Commission is yet to respond to the chief minister’s latest letter as concerns and political tensions around the intensive revision exercise continue to mount.
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