Identical names with identical addresses, new neighbourhoods in Ahmedabad; How BLOs in the SIR cracked it

In a primary school with colourful furniture, buntings left over from the new year celebrations still hanging from the ceiling, Ankita Sahibrao Balpande signs off for the day with a “zero-zero” report. A primary school teacher in a government school for eight years, Balpande, 34, has been assigned a target enumeration of 1258 voters as a Booth Level Officer (BLO) under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Ghatlodiya Assembly constituency of Ahmedabad.

The task has been arduous, not only because it is a high-profile constituency represented by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, but because it has voters, many of whom have migrated from the walled city areas, after they were last enrolled in 2002.

She cites a case where she found two male voters with exactly the same names — Kiritkumar — including the middle name, which is usually the father’s name, and surname, who were residents of the same pol neighbourhood in Kalupur 23 years ago and had moved to Ghatlodiya.

Ghatlodiya, an urban Assembly constituency, is the largest in Gujarat with 463 polling booths covering over 3.65 lakh voters. (Express Photo)

“Their age became an identifier for me, as one Kiritkumar was 10 years younger than the other. It would have been tough had the age gap been lesser”, says Balpande.

A “zero-zero” report indicates there is no voter left to be mapped. She had mapped forms of 502 voters and was completing the rest of her assigned target at the camp last weekend. “Among these 110 had shifted, 26 died, 20 were duplicate and nine were absent,” Balpande tells The Indian Express, stationed in a classroom on the ground floor at JG International School designated as the camp. The school is also a polling booth with 7,100 listed voters in the last Assembly election.

The other common issue for the BLO here was societies that did not exist in 2002. “I had two such societies — Mirant Co-operative and Sudarshan Towers — in my area,” she tells the paper.

Gujarat was among the six states and Union Territories whose deadline for completing the SIR exercise was extended.

Among those who came for the camp is Jyotiben Trivedi, 72, accompanied by her daughter-in-law Khushboo. She sat on a tiny chair in the kindergarten classroom awaiting her turn to submit documents for inclusion of herself and four family members — son, daughter-in-law and two grandsons as she also recorded the deletion of her husband’s name who had died a few years back.

“We were earlier living in the Gyaswadi area in Ranip from where we have shifted to Thaltej. We were told to submit the form and documents during the camps to avoid duplication. During one of the previous camps, we submitted the death certificate of my father in law,” Khushboo says.

Some voters — who were not in Ahmedabad during the exercise — had neighbours do the formalities for them. Like Prahladbhai Patel (70) and his wife Vasanti Patel (63) who were with their son in Hyderabad for the last six months. Balpande was able to map them but their documents for filling the form were required. “Since we were not around, the BLO called up. Initially, we had doubts about someone seeking our documents but after verifying from our neighbours and the society chairman, we requested our neighbours to use the additional key with them to open our house and submit the required documents. The BLO also shared with us the screenshot of the 2002 list. Our neighbours signed the forms on our behalf. Today I am here for verification,” Patel told this paper.

63- year-old Haresh Khatwani, a resident of Upendra Park Someshwar 3 in Thaltej, a consultant (engineering) was in Bharuch in 2002. He was mapped as per the 2002 data and had filled the SIR form but his both children — 30-year old-son and 28-year-old daughter — were missing from the list.

“I came to submit my passport copy as verification for my children. Initially it did look complicated but since my children were not 18 in 2002, their names were not in that list though they had voted in the previous elections. I have submitted additional documents, too, like their birth certificates and voter cards, just to be on the safer side,” Haresh, who was visiting one of the camps in Ahmedabad, told this paper.

There were also cases where the voters were mapped with the 2002 electoral list but their SIR forms were missing. Vijaybhai Patel (46), a resident of Vishwas Society in Thaltej ward since 2009, submitted Form 6, used for registration of new voters.

Balpande, who has been a BLO since six years, was happy having covered most voters not only who were out of Gujarat but also abroad as she submitted her report to sector officer Raj Solanki.

BLOs and the representatives of political parties shared that the majority of the cases that came up during the enumeration phase were those of names missing from the 2002 list. “Initially, people were hesitant to file the forms which soon turned into frustration as they did not find their names in the 2002 list. Most were left angry too but those who waited patiently to use their right to vote submitted the required documents,” Parag Panchal, spokesperson, Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC), who was present at the camp to help residents with the process, told The Indian Express.

Hitendra Thakkar, Thaltej ward vice president of the BJP, said there were names of voters who were either dead or shifted permanently, in the rolls for over 15-20 years. “There were cases of duplication too like those who shifted from villages to cities but their names continue there too. The BLOs have worked very hard. We would also get names of all the residents whose SIR forms were pending and share with the society chairmen, leave repeated messages on their Whatsapp groups and call them repeatedly,” Thakkar said.

For the NRIs, BLOs even sent the SIR forms virtually to them, which they filled and returned. “Most of the NRI cases came from Upendra Park society where 8-9 voters were in the US. We contacted the society secretary who shared the contact details through their society dictionary. Fortunately, the BLO was also from the same society which helped in building trust. At the end of the fourth camp on January 4, out of 7100 voters listed at the booth only four are pending who are NRIs. We will try getting documents from them as soon as possible, one of the BLOs shared.

“The unmapped voters would be called for a hearing. Though supporting documents from many unmapped voters have been received as of now as per the ECI guidelines, the unmapped voters will be sent notices. However, though there is no official communication yet, this might change looking at the documents received,” one of the officials at the Chief Electoral Office (CEO) said.