Political parties in Bengal are yet to deploy enough booth-level agents (BLAs) although enumeration forms under the special intensive revision of electoral rolls have begun reaching voters.

"So far, 1.18 lakh BLAs have been appointed by the political parties. The figure is not good enough considering the fact that the state has 81,000-odd booths," a source in the poll panel said.

"If all the eight registered parties field BLAs in all booths, there will be more than 6 lakh BLAs. But that will be in an ideal situation where all parties have their support base in every booth," the source added.

The BJP had deployed 39,842 BLAs till Friday evening, while the Trinamool Congress had fielded 38,934. The CPM has deployed a little over 30,724 BLAs, and the Congress 8,046 till Thursday evening.

Sources said the number of BLAs of all the parties would increase in the next few days.

"Trinamool has the strength to appoint BLA in all booths. The ruling party would definitely field BLAs in almost all the booths in the next few days," said a party insider.

The BJP is focusing on about 65,000 booths where it can station BLAs.

"We can position BLAs in more than 70,000 booths, but we will do so in 65,000 as the other booths will be vulnerable for our party workers. We cannot risk the lives of our workers in these booths," said a BJP leader.

CPM and Congress leaders have already nominated more BLAs, but the figures have yet to reflect in the poll panel documents.

The sources said the role of BLAs is important during the SIR exercise as they can accompany booth-level officers during the distribution of enumeration forms.

"If the BLAs of political parties accompany the BLOs, it would be ensured that no complaints are raised on the exercise. This is the reason why the Election Commission has repeatedly requested the political parties to field BLAs, but the figure is not encouraging at all," said a source.

The sources said the number of BLAs was low as nearly 3 crore enumeration forms had been distributed till Friday evening. "If the parties could not field BLAs from Day 1, it is a failure on their part as there was enough time to do so," said another source.