Rajasthan BLO threatens suicide over order to delete 470 minority voters

A Booth Level Officer (BLO) from Rajasthan’s Hawa Mahal Assembly constituency has threatened to commit suicide after he was allegedly pressured to delete the names of 470 Muslim voters from his booth.

A video that has been circulating on social media shows the BLO, identified as Kirti Kumar, can be seen shouting on a phone call, saying, “Maybe I should remove voters from the entire basti, that can help you as well as Maharaj win the election comfortably,” reportedly speaking to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillor Suresh Saini.

“Maharaj” refers to BJP MLA Balmukund Acharya, who won the 2023 Assembly elections by a margin of just 974 votes. Acharya has repeatedly landed himself in controversy since he was elected MLA. In December 2023, he cracked down on vendors selling meat on the streets and asked officials to close down such shops.

In April last year, Acharya, along with his supporters, had allegedly raised offensive slogans at the Jama Masjid in Jaipur after the Pahalgam attack.

According to a Newslaundry report, a BJP booth-level agent has filed objections against 467 voters in Kumar’s booth between January 8 and January 9, most of them being Muslims. However, Councillor Suresh Saini has maintained that they don’t have an “agenda” against Muslim voters and have filed objections on the suspicion that the voters in question don’t actually live there.

Kumar, who is an English teacher at a government school, has said that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has already affected his students, and he has been asked to verify the 470 forms in two days, adding to the pressure.

The Newslaundry

report also mentions that BLOs from five neighbouring booths, with a majority of Hindu voters, have received no objections, while another BLO, Saraswati Meena, received 158 objections with “all of them against Muslim voters filed by the BJP agents.”