Kerala SIR exercise: Booth Level Officer suffers injuries after Kottayam local sets dog on her

KOTTAyAM(Kerala): A Booth Level Officer (BLO) suffered neck and face injuries in Kerala’s Kottayam area on Thursday after a local man allegedly eleased his dog on her while she was carrying out the enumeration for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the State.

Currently, a nationwide SIR is being carried out in 12 states and union territories, with the final elector’s list to be published on February 7, 2026.

“I was on SIR duty in Kottayam, Pakkil and while on duty I faced dog bites several times. The injuries are making it hard to do the survey,” the booth-level officer said.

The officer is among the 171 BLOs assigned in the Kottayam assembly constituency. She had been assigned to Booth number 123, located in the CMS L P School, Pakkil. She claimed that she suffered the dog bites while distributing enumeration forms among the electors.

According to Kerala’s Election Commission, there are more than 1,500 BLOs appointed for the Kottayam district.

The distribution of enumeration forms marks the beginning of the SIR exercise covering the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.

Election Commission of India (ECI) had announced the second phase of the SIR exercise on October 27, with the final voter list to be published on February 7, 2026.

According to the Election Commission, printing and training took place from October 28 to November 3, followed by an Enumeration Phase from November 4 to December 4.

The Draft Electoral Rolls will be published on December 9, followed by a claims and objection period from December 9 to January 8, 2026. The Notice Phase (for hearing and verification) will take place between December 9 and January 31, 2026, with publication of Final Electoral Rolls on February 7, 2026.

Drawing on experience from the first phase of SIR in Bihar, the ECI has also decided that the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will visit households up to three times for the matching and linking of forms.

“If the elector is not available or there is a delay in matching and linking, the BLOs will visit the houses a total of three times. Electors can also fill out the forms online. If their names, or their father’s or mother’s names, were not available on the 2003 list, the ERO will determine eligibility based on the indicative documents,” Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said in the press conference on October 27.

Meanwhile, Kerala government is set to join the Tamil Nadu government in petitioning the Supreme Court against the second phase of the SIR, while the BJP and the Election Commission has said that such an exercise is necessary to “purify” the electoral list.

The last nationwide SIR was conducted in 2002. (ANI)