Kudawala distribute electoral enumeration roll forms to voters in Patna

At around noon on July 11, businessman Arvind Kumar Jha, 55, was sitting at his two-wheeler accessories shop at the exhibition road in Patna, when he got a call from his home assistant Deepak Kumar, 22, saying the kudawala (municipal sweeper) had given him the electoral enumeration roll form to fill-up. When Mr. Jha came home late at night, he hurriedly filled up his form and submitted it to the same municipal sweeper when he visited his locality the next day.

“The kudawala had distributed the electoral enumeration roll form to everyone in the locality to fill up and almost all of us submitted that form to him next day”, Mr, Jha told The Hindu on Tuesday (July 15, 2025). Mr. Jha has been living in a rental flat for decades near the Panchshiv mandir (temple) of the bus stand in the Kankerbagh locality of Patna. He, like others in the locality, added that he “neither got any receipt by the kudawala, nor the form bore any bar code (QR code) on it”. Mr. Jha has been a voter at Raghunath Prasad Baika Ucch Madhyamik Vidyalaya (a government school) in the locality. He said he got a photograph of the filed-up form on his mobile phone for “future references and proof”.

Similarly, his neighbour Anand Kishore, 58, too is anxious. “I just do not know what value this enumeration roll form carries. Here in a locality of the State capital when a kudawala distributes and collects forms with no receipt or the bar code given on the form, it creates serious doubts in our minds”, said Mr. Anand, an insurance agent.

Anand Kishore, one of the people in Patna who received an enumeration form from the Kudawala.
| Photo Credit:
Special arrangement

“We’ll not be surprised when the same kudawala, one day, could be seen selling these forms as is to the kabadiwala (rag picker/ scrap dealer)”, he added with a smile on his face as the other members of the locality nodded in affirmation. Mr. Anand further said that he would go the polling booth to meet the BLO (Booth Level Officer) Manju Devi on Tuesday to “clear the doubt”. Mr. Kishore had received the enumeration roll forms for his family from the Kudawala for “second time” as he had misplaced the form given the first time.

While speaking to The Hindu, BLO Manju Devi was non-committal. “I’m not aware whether the kudawala is distributing the enumeration form in the locality. “Humko nahi pata hai” (I do not know) she said.

The local residents said that Ms. Devi sits at the polling booth in a school and also at a corner place in the same locality everyday where one could go and submit the form. “But, except the kudawala, no one has visited our locality for the electoral enumeration roll form”, they echoed.

“Leave aside the seemanchal (border) or the remote districts of Bihar where the BLOs allegedly are not reaching out to the residents to distribute the electoral roll enumeration forms as per guidelines of the Election Commission, here in Patna kudawalas have been distributing the form to the residents and collecting it thereafter for submission. What more could be hilarious than this?”, Mr. Kishore wondered adding, “It’s been an unnecessary harassment for common people like us who doesn’t know what is happening. What if we are told at the election booth on the election day that we had not filled up our form and our names have been deleted from the electoral roll?”, he asked while responding himself quickly, “nothing at all”. “It’s been a mockery of democracy”, quipped Mr. Jha standing by his side.

Another resident of the locality Sachin Kumar said, he had filled up the bar coded form by going up to the polling booth. “We as residents, too have some responsibilities to discharge”, he further said with a puckish smile on his bearded face while admitting that he too, like others in the locality, had received the enumeration roll form by the kudawala. “How much the government would do? Its’s our duty too to do something on our own but it takes hours at the polling booth to do the required formalities”, he added with a mock on his face.

Meanwhile, two BLOs in the State have been booked allegedly for misleading voters and taking bribe from them while discharging their duties on the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. In Gaya district, the BLO Gauri Shankar, an assistant teacher, was accused of taking money from the voters for filling up the enumeration forms at a polling booth and in the Matihani Assembly constituency of Begusarai, a criminal case was registered against BLO Wazahat Ali Farooqui allegedly for giving wrong and misleading information regarding SIR to the voters.

Out of total 7.89 crore voters in Bihar, the Election Commission said 83.66% enumeration forms have been collected as part of the ongoing SIR till July 14 and so far, 1.59% electors have been found to be deceased, 2.2% permanently shifted and 0.73% enrolled at more than one place. Thus, only 11.82% of electors now remain to submit their filled forms and nearly one lakh BLOs would soon begin their third round of door to door visits in the State.

The last date of submission of the filled enumeration forms of electoral roll as part of ongoing SIR in the State is July 25.

The State Assembly elections are due in October-November later this year.

Published – July 15, 2025 10:51 am IST