ITANAGAR, 19 May: The state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Pawan Kumar Sain said that political parties play a pivotal role in ensuring accuracy of the electoral roll, and urged all parties to appoint booth-level agents (BLAs) for each polling station to ensure effective conduct of the revision process.

The CEO on Tuesday convened a state-level coordination meeting with representatives of political parties to review the state’s preparedness for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The meeting was follow-up to the one which was held on 16 September, 2025, and formed part of the recently announced Phase-3 activities of the SIR.

Referring to the appointment of BLAs by political parties by 30 September, 2025, as earlier emphasised during the meeting held on 16 September, 2025, the CEO expressed concern over the low turnout of representatives from political parties at the meeting and the marginal increase in the number of BLAs appointed so far.

The CEO explained the necessity of conducting the SIR of electoral rolls, which was undertaken as a regular exercise up to the year 2004. He informed that the Election Commission of India (ECI) through a letter dated 14 May, 2026, had announced the SIR.

Sain said that, as per the ECI, intensive verification of electoral rolls is necessary, particularly after a gap of nearly 20 years, due to significant changes in the electoral roll, possibilities of repeated entries from rapid urbanisation and frequent migration, concerns raised by political parties about the quality of the electoral roll, and the need to remove deceased, duplicate, and foreign electors.

He also shared with the representatives of the political parties the updated status of BLA appointments.

A total of 3,131 BLAs – BJP (2,286),  INC (422), NPP (100), PPA (239), NCP (43), and NCP-A (41)- have been appointed so far, the CEO told the political parties, adding that there are 2,288 polling stations in the state.

Joint Chief Electoral Officer Liken Koyu explained the key features of the SIR process through a presentation. The presentation covered various stages of the exercise, including training of election functionaries, printing and distribution of enumeration forms, rationalisation of polling stations, the enumeration phase, publication of the draft electoral roll, filing of claims and objections, issuing of notices and verification procedures, list of required documents, publication of the final electoral roll, and the mechanism for supervision and checks.

The guidelines for the appointment of BLAs were re-shared with the political parties and queries raised regarding Aadhaar were also clarified.

Regarding monitoring of the revision process, political parties were urged to direct their district-level representatives to actively participate in meetings convened by the district election officers and electoral registration officers from time to time during the course of the SIR process.

Certain fundamental aspects relating to the revision of electoral rolls were also discussed during the meeting.

Representatives from the People’s Party of Arunachal, Bharatiya Janata Party, Indian National Congress, and the National People’s Party attended the meeting.