Tragedy struck the Sujapur area of Malda district as Mohammad Anikul Alam, a 56-year-old geography teacher and Booth Level Officer (BLO), passed away following a severe heart attack, allegedly triggered by the overwhelming pressure of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Alam, who served at booth number 144, had reportedly been under immense psychological strain after receiving a list from the Block Development Office (BDO) requiring the re-verification of several voters. To his utter shock and distress, his own name—despite being a long-term regular voter—appeared on the list of documents to be re-checked. Family members recounted that this unexpected “identity crisis,” coupled with the rigorous demands of verifying 44 unmapped names within tight deadlines, led him to a state of panic. After a fruitless visit to the BDO office to seek redress, Alam fell ill and eventually succumbed at a private nursing home in English Bazaar.
This incident has added fuel to a raging political controversy in West Bengal, where the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the opposition BJP are at loggerheads over the conduct of the SIR process. The TMC leadership has labeled the death as “harassment and torture,” accusing the Election Commission and the BJP of engineering a “voter-cleansing operation” that places inhuman pressure on field-level staff. Conversely, the BJP has dismissed these claims as politically motivated, suggesting that the deceased had prior health issues and that the state government is using such tragedies to deflect from the presence of “fake voters” on the rolls.
The death of Anikul Alam is not an isolated case; it follows the recent passing of Samprita Choudhury Sanyal, another BLO from Malda’s English Bazaar, whose family also blamed the “mountains of paperwork” and relentless official deadlines for her deteriorating health. Across the state, reports of deaths and suicides among BLOs—many of whom are schoolteachers or ICDS workers—have surfaced, sparking a wider debate about the mental health and physical safety of frontline administrative workers. As the electoral roll revision continues, the growing toll on these officers has led to calls for a more compassionate and methodical approach, ensuring that the democratic process does not come at the cost of human lives.
