GUWAHATI: In poll-bound Assam, the names of 10.56 lakh voters have been deleted after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
According to the integrated draft rolls released by the Election Commission on Saturday, 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 under the Foreigners Act, 1946. If a person is declared as D-Voter, he or she is not issued a voter card.
All related particulars, such as name, age and photograph, of D-Voters have been carried forward to the draft electoral roll without any change.
The publication of the draft rolls followed house-to-house verification conducted from November 22 to December 20.
The draft rolls were published after house-to-house verification of the Special Revision was held from November 22 to December 20.
Now, voters will be able to file claims and objections till January 22, and the final electoral rolls will be published on February 10, a statement said.
The verification was carried out at 61,03,103 households across the state with the involvement of 35 District Election Officers, 126 Electoral Registration Officers, 1,260 AEROs, over 29,656 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and 2578 BLO Supervisors. Political parties appointed 61,533 Booth Level Agents (BLAs) to assist and monitor the process.
“In Assam, the purification of electoral rolls during the current Special Revision (SR) cycle is a meticulous administrative effort focused on enhancing the integrity of the electoral roll ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections,” an official statement said.
“The purification drive aims to prepare an error-free electoral roll by facilitating enrolment of eligible un-enrolled electors, correction of clerical errors in such as name, age, address, etc, removing names of deceased persons, shifting of electors, identifying and deleting multiple entries where a single elector is registered in more than polling station or constituency,” the statement added.
To maintain transparency, the state held two rounds of meetings with political parties with a third scheduled for December 30. Additionally, 29,230 BLO-BLA meetings have taken place across the state.
In October, the Election Commission had ordered the Special Intensive Revision for 12 states and Union Territories – Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Puducherry, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep. Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and West Bengal will go to elections in 2026.
As Assam is also going to polls next year, its exclusions from the SIR had raised questions. However, the ECI clarified that separate provisions of the Citizenship Act apply in Assam where the Supreme Court-monitored exercise to verify citizenship was about to be concluded.