One more Booth Level Officer (BLO) died by suicide in West Bengal on Wednesday, reportedly due to immense work pressure during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Hours after the incident, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee criticised the Election Commission of India (ECI), saying that precious lives are being lost because of the stress caused by the SIR process in the state.
She urged the commission to “immediately halt this unplanned drive before more lives are lost.”
Mamata Banerjee slammed the national poll body in a post on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “Today again, we lost a Booth Level Officer in Mal, Jalpaiguri — Smt Shanti Muni Ekka, a tribal lady, an anganwadi worker who took her own life under the unbearable pressure of the ongoing SIR work. 28 people have already lost their lives since SIR began — some due to fear and uncertainty, others due to stress and overload”.
Deeply shocked and saddened.
Today again, we lost a Booth Level Officer in Mal, Jalpaiguri — Smt Shanti Muni Ekka, a tribal lady, an anganwadi worker who took her own life under the unbearable pressure of the ongoing SIR work.
28 people have already lost their lives since SIR…
— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) November 19, 2025
Adding to it she wrote, “Such precious lives are being lost because of the unplanned, relentless workload imposed by the so-called Election Commission of India. A process that earlier took 3 years is now being forced into 2 months on the eve of elections to please political masters, putting inhuman pressure on BLOs. I urge the ECI to act with conscience and immediately halt this unplanned drive before more lives are lost”.
Similar case recently in East Burdwan
This comes just 10 days after another BLO in East Burdwan, Namita Hansda, died of a cerebral attack, allegedly triggered by relentless work pressure during the roll revision drive. Namita, an Anganwadi worker, had been assigned as the BLO for Booth No. 278 in Chak Balarampur, Memari.
On Wednesday, Shanti Muni Ekka, a resident of Rangamati panchayat in Malbazar, Jalpaiguri district, and a BLO in the rural area, died by suicide. Police recovered her body and sent it for a postmortem examination.
Her family said she could not handle the pressure from the demanding work, including the distribution and collection of voter enumeration forms. State OBC Minister Buluchik Baraik visited her family to offer condolences.
TMC accuses ECI of overloading BLOs
TMC leaders have repeatedly accused the ECI of advancing deadlines and overburdening BLOs with field verification tasks ahead of elections. They said many workers have collapsed due to long hours, travel, and pressure to meet deadlines.
The ECI has not responded to Mamata Banerjee’s allegations. Opposition parties, meanwhile, dismissed the TMC’s claims, saying the government is trying to shift responsibility for poor support to field-level workers.
BLO suicide cases in other states
A government school teacher from Jaipur, Mukesh Jangid (45), who was working as a BLO, died after allegedly jumping in front of a train. His family said he was under extreme workload and deadline pressure, which pushed him to take this step. They also claimed Mukesh had been working nonstop for almost 12 hours every day. A suicide note found near him mentioned that he was being pressured to meet his SIR target and was even threatened with suspension. He wrote that he had not been able to sleep for the past few days.
On the same day, in Kannur, Kerala, another BLO, Aneesh George (44), was found hanging at his home. His family said he, too, was struggling with heavy work pressure. Aneesh, who also worked in a government school, would often work late into the night to finish his assigned tasks. On some days, he worked till 2 am, according to his family.
The SIR exercise to remove illegal voters started across 12 states on November 4. As part of the process, BLOs have to distribute forms to voters, collect them and upload the details on an app.