‘Was Pressured’: In Uttar Pradesh, Three Deaths in Two Days Among Officials Engaged in SIR Work 

Lucknow: "I was being pressured by the SDM, BDO and Lekhpal," Vipin Yadav's dying declaration was captured on camera and shared on social media.

Yadav, a primary school teacher posted in Uttar Pradesh's Gonda died by suicide on November 25 after consuming poison. His declaration was caught on camera before he succumbed. Yadav was a supervisor in the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls being carried out by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Yadav’s brother-in-law Prateek claimed senior officials were pressuring Yadav to delete Other Backward Classes voters from the lists during the SIR exercise. "The SDM [sub-divisional magistrate], Lekhpal and BDO [block development officer] were forcing him to delete OBC votes and add other names. They were also threatening him with suspension and police action,” Prateek said.

A "lekhpal" in Uttar Pradesh is a state government revenue officer tasked with maintaining land records.

"SDM, BDO and lekhpal were pressuring him (BLO Vipin Yadav) to delete OBC votes. They were threatening him with suspension and police action," said relative of BLO Vipin Yadav who allegedly killed himself by consuming poison in Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh. https://t.co/0D4Ugx4rnr pic.twitter.com/44vkuQwdkC

— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) November 26, 2025

Priyanka Niranjan, Gonda's district magistrate, released a statement saying, “There is no truth to the claim that any BLO has been instructed not to include the names of voters from any community or caste group." A three-member team has been constituted to look into Yadav’s death, DM Niranjan said. 

Vipin is one of the several BLOs who have died or taken their lives during the SIR exercises in multiple states, which kickstarted on November 4.

Almost 220 km from Gonda in UP's Fatehpur district, on the same day, November 25, a BLO died by suicide a day before his wedding.

UP BLO kills himself a day before his wedding

In UP's Fatehpur, BLO Sudheer Kumar, a lekhpal, engaged with the SIR killed himself after he was served suspension ultimatum allegedly by the SDM after he didn't turn up at a meeting. Sudhir who died on November 25 was supposed to… pic.twitter.com/nWpfQEUQ1M

— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) November 26, 2025

Sudhir Kumar, who was busy with his wedding preparations, had reportedly skipped a SIR meeting at his tehsil premises on November 22. This had attracted a suspension and a reprimand for Kumar from a senior official. Kumar’s sister Roshni claimed an official’s visit to Kumar’s house was particularly humiliating. "An official visited our house a day before the wedding and threatened him with dire consequences if he did not join work. He later went inside and locked the room," Roshini told local reporters in Gonda.

A day before BLO Sudhir Kumar's wedding, an official had visited his house and threatened him to join the SIR work or face suspension which drove him take the extreme step, claims a family member speaking to reporters in UP's Gonda. pic.twitter.com/DZvFQ7telS

— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) November 26, 2025

Multiple cases of BLOs citing work pressure, threat of suspension and police action have surfaced from multiple states including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Kerala. Reports have noted four deaths among SIR workers in Uttar Pradesh, eight in Madhya Pradesh and four in Rajasthan. The EC has not acknowledged these deaths as having been a result of the SIR. 

In Bareilly district, Yogesh Gangwar, 47, a primary school teacher deployed as a BLO on SIR duty collapsed and died on November 26. Yogesh's wife had passed away in September this year. "He used to work till late at night and again start early in the day. He was not getting proper sleep. His wife had recently passed away and was left alone to take care of his children. He was being consistently reprimanded by senior officials," Gangwar’s brother Sarvesh said. 

Reacting to the claims of work pressure, Pramod Kumar, Bareilly Sadar sub-division magistrate said," His work was going smoothly and additional teachers were deployed to help him. Nobody was pressuring him."

As per the family of the victims, triggers like "Work pressure", "threat of suspension and police action" were the common denominators in almost all the cases of BLOs taking the extreme step of killing themselves.

Why the pressure?

Lowest paid government officials like panchayat sachivs, tehsildars, assistant teachers and anganwadi workers are largely among those who are deputed as BLOs during the election season. But it is only in this current SIR exercise that many have complained of inordinate pressure. 

A primary school teacher currently serving as BLO in Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh spoke to The Wire on condition of anonymity.

If Election Commission of India really wants to understand what is happening on ground, why are BLOs being forced to take their own lives - they should go through this conversation. The BLO here not only highlights the problem with SIR implementation but also provides solution. pic.twitter.com/sQPXlxcewK

— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) November 25, 2025

"This entire process involves technical expertise and BLOs were not imparted any training regarding this. There are teachers and Anganwadi workers who still use keypad mobile phones and have now been given tasks to upload data of hundreds of voters on mobile apps. Each BLO has been handed the task of distributing the forms, getting it filled, collecting it and digitising the data on the app. With all these issues, we have our supervisors breathing down our neck to meet the impractical deadline," the BLO said.

The ECI has claimed the SIR in Bihar as a roaring success. However, the next phase is off to a rather bumpy start with some critics already calling it a catastrophe. "There is no scope of any BLO securing leave even in case of medical emergency or death in the family. This situation is akin to the gram panchayat election that happened during the Covid-19 which led to untimely deaths of several government officials. Unprecedented pressure is being put on BLOs in the current exercise," the teacher added.

There has been silence from the ECI on the death of BLOs. A call to Navdeep Rinwa, chief electoral officer of Uttar Pradesh, to seek his reaction over the death of four BLOs in this state went unanswered. The story will be updated once we have his statement.

Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav, president of the Samajwadi Party has sought compensation of Rs 1 crore for the family of the deceased BLOs. "This is a direct appeal from the Election Commission that they provide a compensation of Rs 1 crore to those who lost their lives during SIR in Uttar Pradesh. We also pledge to provide financial assistance of rupees to the dependants of each deceased," Yadav said in a post on X.

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