By Soham Shah
Block Level Officer (BLO) Jyotsna Shinde was seated at a resident’s house in Marketyard, Pune, helping him fill out the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) Enumeration Form. While she was in conversation with the resident, her phone buzzed.
“Ma’am, where are you? I will come give you my family’s documents,” said Mushraf Ali Peerzada, the voice on the other side. Even though Shinde assured him that she would visit his residence to collect his information, Peerzada insisted on getting his family’s enumeration process started. Within a few minutes, he arrived at the location and provided necessary identity documents like passport-sized photos of his family members to the BLO.
“I have gotten at least six to seven such calls since the morning. They are all from Muslim families. They are anxious and insist that they will come and deliver their documents to us even if we tell them we will be visiting their house over the next few days,” said Swati Owhal, another BLO working in the same region.
‘The SIR is currently being conducted by the Election Commission of India in various states. The door-to-door distribution of enumeration forms commenced in Maharashtra on June 30 and will continue till July 29.
The controversial SIR in West Bengal left over 27 lakh people out of the voter rolls “under adjudication” over “logical discrepancies”. These people were not allowed to vote in the 2026 assembly election, in which the BJP emerged victorious for the first time in the state.
A BLO from the Kondhwa Khurd region said that he had received five calls from Muslim families on July 1. During the pre-SIR mapping process, the BLO said he received around 40 to 50 calls, 90 per cent of which were from Muslim families.
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here.