A booth-level officer (BLO) in West Bengal’s Malda district died on Wednesday, triggering a political exchange over the workload linked to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

The deceased, Samprita Choudhury Sanyal, was serving as the BLO of booth number 163 in the Englishbazar Municipality area and was also an ICDS worker, police said. According to her family, Sanyal had been unwell for several days.

“She had been ‘unwell for the past few days and was advised to take rest by doctors, but she continued working for the electoral roll revision exercise’,” her husband said.

He added, “Her condition deteriorated as SIR workload mounted. She died at our residence in the early hours of Wednesday.” A senior police officer said Sanyal was a resident of the Phulbari Pakurtala area.

Officials confirmed that she continued working despite medical advice to rest, as the SIR process was underway across the state.

Following her death, Trinamool Congress councillor Gayatri Ghosh visited the family and raised concerns about the pressure on field-level staff. She alleged that “excessive pressure during the SIR process was affecting the health of BLOs”.

The BJP, however, rejected attempts to place the responsibility solely on the Election Commission.

BJP south Malda organisational district president Ajay Gangopadhyay said, “Any death is unfortunate, but it is not right to put all the blame on the Election Commission. Trinamool Congress leaders and the elected representatives are also pressuring the BLOs over the deletion of fake voters.”

A primary school teacher died on Friday night in Cooch Behar, allegedly because of excessive work pressure and mental stress linked to his engagement as a BLO for the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll, his family claimed on Saturday.