Starting tomorrow, over 80,000 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in West Bengal will undergo training on the new BLO app, login systems and enumeration forms, as part of the preparation for the house-to-house voter enumeration campaign beginning November 4
Mass training drive kicks off with tech focus
Beginning Saturday, the training for 80,681 BLOs will roll out across all districts of West Bengal, with emphasis on the BLO app, its technical features, login procedures and usage of new enumeration forms, state officials said. The training will continue until November 3, ahead of the door-to-door enumeration drive scheduled to begin on November 4.
Each BLO will be provided a dedicated BLO kit, which includes an identity card and a cap. The Election Commission’s state office has also kept a reserve list of 14,000 additional BLOs, who may be inducted later in case of booth rationalisation or expansion.
In anticipation of logistical and security issues, the state police (via ADG Nodal Officer Anand Kumar) have been coordinating the security arrangements for BLOs, according to sources.
The training is expected to ensure that BLOs, many of whom work on mobile devices for field data capture, are fully prepared for the upcoming exercise.
Preparations, printing work and extended rollout
The revision work is part of the upcoming Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls, and around 85 % of the new enumeration forms have already been printed. The remaining printing is to be completed by November 2, according to a senior official in the Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) office.
On Friday, a training program was held involving 294 Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), over 3,000 Assistant EROs (AEROs), 24 District Election Officers (DEOs)/District Magistrates and ADMs, convened by West Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal. Also present virtually was ECI Director General (IT) Seema Khanna from Delhi. The meeting reaffirmed the technical training schedule and the rollout plan for both BLOs and Booth Level Agents (BLAs), whose training will also begin the following day and wrap up by November 3.
In addition, 23 large entry locations and transit points have been mapped for future monitoring of enumerators and electoral materials, and comprehensive logistic support including printed forms, kits and IT infrastructure is being scrutinised to ensure smooth execution.
(With inputs from Subhrajit Chakraborty)
