GUWAHATI: Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Sushmita Dev petitioned the Election Commission on Friday, alleging that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Assam was rushed and haphazard.
In a letter addressed to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, she warned that the hurried process could lead to large-scale wrongful deletions and denial of voting rights to genuine citizens.
She requested the Commission to extend the date for hearings and disposal by another seven days to ensure that people get a fair opportunity to defend their right to vote.
“It has been seen that huge amounts of objections have been filed under Form-7 to delete the names of individuals. These Form-7 objections for deletion of names have been filed by persons in bulk and in most cases, the complainant, who is named in the form, is either untraceable or has denied filing these forms,” Dev wrote in her letter.
She said it would be practically impossible to serve every person a notice whose names have been objected to as per Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 (Form-14) and hold a hearing before 2 February, 2026.
Service of notices has to be in person and will be done by BLOs across Assam, and therefore, the date of hearings cannot be given until all notices are duly served, she said.
The MP further stated that the over 19 lakh people, excluded from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) with no remedy to challenge their status, cannot be excluded from the voter list.
She pointed out that the Supreme Court had clearly stated that until the final NRC list is notified after exhausting all legal remedies, no regressive measures can be taken against any person excluded.
Last month, the names of 10.56 lakh voters were deleted from Assam’s draft roll after the SR exercise.
According to the EC, 4,78,992 names were deleted because of deaths, 5,23,680 voters were found to have moved from their registered addresses, while 53,619 demographically similar entries were identified for correction.
The state has 2,51,09,754 voters, excluding 93,021 D-Voters or doubtful voters. They belong to a category of voters who have been disenfranchised by the government on account of their alleged lack of proper citizenship credentials. Their cases are dealt with by special tribunals.
If a person is declared a D-Voter, he or she is not issued a voter card.