A booth-level officer (BLO) in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district died on the way to a hospital from his home in Sikandra Rao town on Tuesday morning.
The 40-year-old Kamlakant Sharma was working as an assistant teacher in Composite School Navli Lalpur.
The family members of the deceased Sharma said he was under stress since starting work as a BLO.
Sharma’s death came in the midst of a standoff between the ruling BJP and the Opposition on holding a discussion on electoral reforms and Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which has been cited as the reason for multiple deaths across the country.
The government, later in the afternoon, agreed to a discussion on the issue in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha next week.
According to Sharma’s family, he felt dizzy while drinking tea after coming down from the upper floor of his house and collapsed.
He was rushed for treatment but died on the way, officials said. His body has been sent for a post-mortem.
Sharma’s son, Vinayak, said his father had been distressed for several days due to the workload related to BLO duties. “He came downstairs around 7 am to have tea and suddenly fainted. He passed away while being taken to the hospital,” he said.
District Magistrate Atul Vats visited the family soon after receiving information about the death. Calling it “unfortunate”, he said the cause would be clear after the post-mortem and added that the administration would explore providing a job to Sharma’s wife, who has passed the intermediate examination.
“He was a sincere employee and performed his duties well,” he said.
A hearing on a bunch of petitions filed against the SIR process is being heard by a Supreme Court division bench.
Since Sunday, three BLOs have died in Uttar Pradesh, among them one by suicide.
Sarvesh Singh, a BLO in Moradabad district had left behind a note and a video where he was seen sobbing hard. Singh, who died on Sunday, had said he could have possibly finished the workload had the Election Commission given him more time.
On the same day, the commission extended the deadline from 4 December to 9 December. The draft electoral rolls will now be published on 16 December.