ECI Begins Training of 373 Grassroots Election Officials from Four States

New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has commenced the eighth batch of training for Booth Level Officer (BLO) Supervisors at the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) in New Delhi. This is the largest batch of grassroots election functionaries trained so far, comprising 373 participants from Uttar Pradesh (118), Madhya Pradesh (130), Chhattisgarh (96), and Haryana (29).

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Shri Gyanesh Kumar inaugurated the training and addressed the officials, which include BLOs, BLO Supervisors, and Electoral Registration Officers (EROs). He emphasized the crucial role of training in ensuring that elections are conducted in strict accordance with the Representation of the People Acts of 1950 and 1951, as well as the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 and the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, along with all guidelines issued by the ECI.

In his address, the CEC underlined the importance of equipping grassroots officials with a clear understanding of the appeal provisions under Section 24(a) and 24(b) of the RP Act, 1950. These relate to first appeals with the District Magistrate/Collector or Executive Magistrate, and second appeals with the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of the State/UT. Shri Kumar also urged officials to raise voter awareness about these provisions during field verification.

It is noteworthy that no appeals were filed from the four participating states—Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh—after the completion of the Special Summary Revision (SSR) conducted between January 6–10, 2025.

The training program focuses on enhancing the officials’ practical knowledge in voter registration processes, form handling, and field-level implementation of electoral procedures. Participants will also be trained in the use of IT tools, and given technical demonstrations of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs), including mock poll exercises.

With this batch, over 3,720 grassroots officials have been trained in the last two months at IIIDEM as part of ECI’s ongoing capacity-building initiative.