SIR effect! Why were a record 10.56 lakh names deleted from the draft voter list in Assam? ECI gave the reason, said- final list will come on February 10

Assam SIR Exercise, Assam Voter List Revision, Assam Draft Electoral Roll: Before the upcoming Assam Assembly elections, a major change has been seen in the voter list of the state. Conducted by Election Commission of India (ECI) Special Review Campaign (SIR) Under this, names of more than 10.56 lakh voters have been removed from the draft voter list. The updated draft voter list released on Saturday has sparked a new debate regarding the election preparations of Assam.

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Big change in draft voter list

According to the new draft list, there are now 2.51 crore registered voters in Assam. However, this does not include more than 93,000 ‘D-Voters’. D-voters are those people whose citizenship Questions remain regarding. Their names are registered in the voter list, but they do not have the right to vote.

For what reasons were so many names removed?

According to election officials, there are mainly three reasons behind the removal of names,

• Death: Names of about 4.8 lakh voters were removed after verification because they had died.
• Location change: About 5.23 lakh people had shifted from their registered address somewhere else.
• Duplicate Entry: Over 53,000 names were found to have similarities and were marked as duplicate entries.

door-to-door verification

This special revision exercise was conducted between 22 November and 20 December. During this period, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) visited more than 61 lakh houses and did physical verification of voters. Officials say that this process was done completely at the ground level, so that the list can be made more accurate and reliable.

Opportunity for objection and correction

After the release of the draft list, voters have been given the opportunity till January 22 to register objections for addition, deletion or correction of names. After this, the final voter list will be published on 10 February.

Voting system in Assam

There are currently 31,486 polling stations in Assam, which have been recently reorganized under the rationalization process. While states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are undergoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR), Assam has been placed under Special Revision, which is considered to be an intermediate process between regular annual update and full intensive revision.

sensitive issue of citizenship

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has already clarified that matters related to citizenship in Assam come under separate legal provisions. He said that the comprehensive process of citizenship verification in the state is in the final stages under the supervision of the Supreme Court.

What is SIR and why is it important?

Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is an intensive process in which all voters are verified at the ground level. Its purpose is to remove dead, transferred, duplicate and illegal voters from the list. Such a comprehensive intensive revision was done in India about two decades ago.

Controversy related to Bihar

This year, a big controversy also came to light regarding the SIR exercise held in Bihar. The opposition alleged that through this a large number of voters from marginalized communities were deprived of their franchise. The matter reached the Supreme Court, although the court allowed the process to continue with some modifications. In Bihar, 68.6 lakh names were removed from the final list.

Election Commission’s clarification

Election officials say that the purpose of this entire exercise is to prepare a clean, accurate and fair voter list, so that only eligible citizens can vote and the upcoming elections can be conducted in a fair manner.

While this major revision of the voter list in Assam is being said to be a step towards electoral transparency, the opposition parties are also keeping an eye on it. Now it has to be seen what changes emerge in the final list after the process of objection and correction.