Two persons working as booth level officers in Kerala and Rajasthan have died by suicide because of alleged work pressure linked to the revision of voter rolls.

In Kerala’s Kannur, 44-year-old Aneesh George, a school office assistant was found dead in his home on Sunday, The Indian Express reported.

On November 4, the Election Commission began the enumeration phase of the exercise in 12 states and Union Territories, including Kerala and Rajasthan.

His family said that George was overwhelmed by the pressure to meet the deadlines to complete the enumeration task at his booth.

George, assigned to the 18th booth in Payyannur, struggled with distributing the enumeration forms because he was not familiar with the area, the newspaper quoted a friend as saying.

Another friend said that George had sought assistance from booth-level agents of political party but they were was not helpful, the newspaper reported.

However, T Manoharan, the assistant electoral registration officer in Payyanur, said that George had distributed 878 out of the 1,065 forms by Saturday, leaving only a small portion of the task unfinished.

“I cannot comment on whether he was under pressure or not,” the officer was quoted as saying. “His suicide has been reported to the higher-ups.”

The Peringome Police registered a case of unnatural death, The New Indian Express reported.

The state’s Chief Electoral Officer Rathan U Kelkar said that the voter roll revision process is typically completed within a 31-day window and no prior complaints of excessive pressure had been reported, Mathrubhumi reported.

However, booth level officers in Kerala have announced that they will withdraw from duties on Monday in protest, citing unrealistic targets under the voter roll revision process.

In a similar incident, 45-year-old Mukesh Jangid, a teacher and booth level officer in Rajasthan’s Nahri Ka Bas died allegedly by suicide on Sunday, PTI reported.

He was assigned duties in Jhotwara, The Times of India reported.

His brother told the news agency that he found a purported suicide note in which Jangid claimed that he was under stress because of pressure from his supervisor to complete the electoral work. The note added that Jangid faced threats of suspension, PTI reported.

The police took note of the incident and said a case would be filed based on the family’s complaint, The Times of India reported.

Vipin Sharma, general secretary of the All Rajasthan State Employees Joint Federation (Unified), said that the forum plans to submit a memorandum to the chief minister on Monday, urging officials to ease pressure on booth level officers, especially amid the start of half-yearly exams and staff shortages in government schools.

In addition to Kerala and Rajasthan, the voter rolls are also being revised in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Goa, Puducherry, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Lakshadweep are the states and Union Territories that the exercise will cover.

Assembly polls are expected to take place in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry in the first half of 2026.

The task of preparing voter lists before elections is typically assigned to primary school teachers and anganwadi or health care workers, who are employed by state governments. They are required to go door-to-door and check the identities of new voters and verify the details of those who have died or permanently moved out of an area.

In the commission’s parlance, they are called booth level officers. Each booth level officer is responsible for maintaining the voter list for one polling booth, which can sometimes have as many as 1,500 registered voters.

The draft electoral rolls for the 12 states and Union Territories will be published on December 9. Voters can file claims and objections from December 9 to January 8, while hearings and verifications will take place from December 9 to January 31. The final electoral rolls are to be published on February 7.

Several petitions have been filed before the Supreme Court against the exercise over concerns that the special intensive revision of voter rolls could disenfranchise eligible voters.

The voter list revision in Bihar was announced by the poll panel in June and completed ahead of the Assembly elections in November. In the final electoral roll published on September 30, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded.

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