Key Points:
Kirti Kumar, a BLO from Hawa Mahal, Rajasthan, said he would kill himself over intense pressure to delete Muslim voters’ names from the draft voter list. In a phone call, he said removing voters could help BJP leaders win the elections.
Kirti Kumar said he was threatened with suspension and pressured to delete around 470 Muslim voters, despite having verified their names during the SIR process. He said reprocessing the forms in two days was impossible and had already affected his students.
More than 200 objections were filed in two days, despite EC rules limiting objections by booth-level agents. The case comes amid reports of BLO deaths during the SIR, with families blaming work pressure, though no official data has been released.
A troubling case has emerged from the Hawa Mahal Assembly Constituency of Rajasthan, where BLO (Booth Level Officer) Kirti Kumar said that he’d kill himself over the intense pressure from authorities to delete Muslim voters’ names from the draft voter list. In a heated phone call conversation, Kirti Kumar told BJP Councillor Suresh Saini that maybe he could remove voters from the entire locality, which would help him and the local BJP MLA Balmukund Acharya, locally known as Maharaj, win the elections. Reports of the incident emerged on January 15, 2026.
The video of the aforementioned incident has sparked criticism from the citizens of India, who say that the SIR was conducted in a hurried manner, where several irregularities were found. In the video, Kirti Kumar can be heard saying that he was being threatened of his job, and put under immense pressure of deleting around 470 voters from the draft voter list, all of them Muslim names. Hawa Mahal is a Muslim majority constituency, and Acharya won the 2023 state assembly elections by a thin margin of 974 votes.
In the video, Kirti Kumar said that all of the 470 voters’ names were personally verified by him during the intensive SIR process. Kumar is an English teacher at a local government school, and he said that the burden of the SIR had already affected his students. He further says that now, he would have to process the 470 forms within two days, which would take at least 72 hours, given that it takes 10 minutes time to digitise each form.
Kumar said that doing so would be like repeating the entire process again, which he couldn’t do. “Humara pehle hi khoon jal gaya SIR mai (I have already worked a lot during SIR)…BJP politicians are threatening us that they will get us suspended. I know their politics very well. I have informed my seniors that I cannot do this”, he said.
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According to a report from Newslaundry, BJPs booth level agent Vishal Saini, of Kirti Kumar’s booth filed objections against at least 200 voters on January 8, 2026 and January 9, 2026. Vishal Saini stated that he did so because his own ground verification led him to believe that voters from another area had migrated to this booth during the SIR process and registered themselves, but they didn’t live there. He also said that since the Hawa Mahal constituency was a Muslim majority one, major objections would obviously be against Muslim voters.
The Newslaundry report further states that Suresh Saini asked Kirti Kumar to verify the objections filed by Vishal Saini, which he believed was true. He also added that he didn’t have anything personally against Muslims, but he was confident that those voters didn’t live there, and would also request for a further extension of the deadline to file objections.
An interesting thing to be noted here is that the Election Commission of India (ECI) has stated in its 2023 manual on electoral rolls that a booth level agent can only file 10 objections in a day during the claims and objections period. Upon the filing of more than 30 objections, the task would then transfer to the Electoral Registration Officer or Assistant Electoral Registration Officer, who would have to personally cross-verify the matter.
Therefore, it's quite peculiar that more than 200 objections were filed within a period of two days, and verifying these objections would be equivalent to conducting the SIR process for a second time. Kirti Kumar had also mentioned that he had already deleted about 124 voters’ from his booth list following the SIR.
The SIR of electoral rolls in Rajasthan was completed by December 11, 2025, and the draft voter list was published on December 16, 2025. The claims and objections period was from December 16, 2025 to January 15, 2026, following which verification and disposal of claims will take place, before the final electoral roll is published on February 14, 2026.
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Several BLOs across India have reportedly died by suicide during the SIR of electoral rolls, with families blaming extreme work pressure, according to several media outlets. In Rajasthan, at least three BLO deaths have been reported, though most names were not officially disclosed. In Uttar Pradesh, a BLO named Sarvesh Kumar from Moradabad died by suicide, and his family said stress from SIR duties played a major role.
Media reports have stated that about nine BLOs deaths by suicide have occurred in West Bengal, with the most recent one being of Ashok Das, a school teacher. However, the EC has not released any official data confirming these deaths or linking them directly to SIR duties.
The Hawa Mahal case highlights serious concerns about the pressure faced by Booth Level Officers during the SIR process and the manner in which objections are being pursued. Allegations of selective targeting, tight deadlines, and threats of suspension raise questions about fairness and oversight. As the final electoral roll nears publication, the ECI’s response will be crucial in maintaining public trust in the process.
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