Gajendra Singh Negi/ Dehradun
The ongoing process of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls is proving to be a blessing in disguise for the Uttarakhand Congress. Propelled by the drive to appoint Booth Level Agents (BLA) under the SIR, the party has so far appointed 70 Booth Level Agents -1 and 11,300 Booth Level Agents -2 in the State. The appointment of the BLA-2 (one in every polling booth) has helped in strengthening the organisation of the party which has been out of power in the State since 2017 and is plagued by lack of workers at grassroots level.
The convenor of the Congress committee on SIR and former MLA Manoj Rawat told The Pioneer that appointment of 98 per cent of the BLA-2 has been done. He said that the party has trained the BLAs on all aspects of the SIR in the State and from July 7 they will help the voters in responding to the notices served by the election commission. Rawat said that the role of BLAs will be important even after the SIR as they will help new voters to get their names added in the electoral rolls. He added that after the end of SIR, the BLAs will be trained on the party policies and the preparing booth level committees.
The co-convenor of the SIR committee of Congress Amrendra Bisht told The Pioneer that the party has appointed one master trainer each in each of its 27 organisational districts. These master trainers then trained 70 trainers (one in every Vidhan Sabha). Bisht said that the master trainers and trainers have so far imparted training to BLAs in 60 Vidhan Sabhas and the training in remaining constituencies will be completed till the end of June.
A Congress leader said that the SIR has helped the party in preparing BLAs who along with booth presidents will prepare a team of 10-20 workers in every booth. “ If we are able to prepare a strong team at booth level and train them properly on the policies of the party and failures of the BJP government then no one can stop us from coming to power in 2027,’’ he said.
