Assam electoral roll update: The special revision of electoral rolls set to take place in poll-bound Assam over the next two-and-a-half months will be a process unique to the state because of its “peculiar” position of having conducted a National Register of Citizens (NRC) process, but which has not yet been completed, said Assam Chief Election Officer Anurag Goel on Tuesday (November 18). This is not likely to affect those who are already in voter lists, and does not include any enumeration form to be filled out by voters.
What is the special revision process?
The key component of the special revision process in Assam will be house-to-house visits by Booth Level Officers (BLOs) to conduct physical verification of the existing voter lists. In this way, Assam CEO Goel said, it is “stricter than summary revision of voter lists, which takes place every year, but it will not be going into document verification like in the case of SIR (Special Intensive Revision), which took place in Bihar and is taking place in 12 other states.”
This house-to-house verification will begin on November 22 and will continue till December 20 across the 29,656 polling stations across the state.
“The BLOs registers will be printed with the names of all existing voters of each house together. They will physically verify and speak to the head of the family for any necessary updates. During the verification, they will get the necessary forms filled in case a voter in a house has died, has shifted to another constituency. If there is a new voter in the house, then form 6 will be filled, and we will just need the documentation of their linkages to existing voters in the family. The BLOs will visit a house at least three times if they do not find anybody at home on the first visit,” said Goel.
The stated objective of the exercise is limited to “ensuring that no eligible citizen is left out while at the same time no ineligible person is included in the electoral roll.”
A parallel process of rationalisation of polling stations will be conducted in line with ECI directions to limit the number of voters in each polling station to 1,200 as opposed to the earlier limit of 1,500. As a result of this, an additional 1,826 polling stations will have to be set up in Assam.
Following both these processes, the draft electoral roll will be published on December 27, after which there will be a window for filing claims and objections till January 22. The final electoral roll will be published on February 10. It is expected that the notification for the upcoming state elections will be released at the end of February.
Why is this being conducted in Assam instead of the SIR?
The Indian Express had first reported in July this year that the Assam government told the Election Commission of India (ECI) that since it is the only state to have already carried out the exercise of preparing the NRC, this should be factored in whenever the poll panel frames its timelines and decides the list of eligibility documents for the state’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR). The NRC was published in 2019, which excluded 19.6 lakh individuals from 3.3 crore applicants, but it is yet to be notified by the Registrar General of India (RGI). Last week, the Supreme Court issued notices seeking the stand of the Centre, Assam and the Registrar General of Citizen Registration on a plea seeking that National Identity Cards be issued to those in the list, and rejection orders to those excluded, so that the appeals process can commence.
“It is now being expected that this issue will be resolved by August 2026. When that is done, the person who are included will be conclusively proven that they are citizens and the process of an SIR will be eased for them… We have already held multiple meetings with political parties, and all parties have also agreed that an SIR should be conducted later, after the NRC,” said Goel.
Unlike its order for the SIR on June 24, which was published on its website, the ECI hasn’t uploaded any such order for Assam, if any. The ECI’s reasoning behind the SIR and the legal provisions invoked had been detailed in the June 24 order. ECI sources say the special revision would be more rigorous than the annual special summary revision, though not as detailed as the SIR. In the special revision, the ECI requires signatures or thumbprints of all electors (or any adult family member on behalf of the elector) on the “Statement 1” document to confirm the details of electors during the house-to-house survey.
Under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, Section 21 (3) provides for a “special revision” of electoral rolls; however, it pertains to a constituency or a part of a constituency.
“Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (2), the Election Commission may at any time, for reasons to be recorded, direct a special revision of the electoral roll for any constituency or part of a constituency in such manner as it may think fit,” Section 21 (3) says.
Are existing voters going to be affected by this exercise?
Goel says that this is not likely to be the case. “Those whose names were already in the voter lists, it is presumed that they are valid ordinary residents,” he said. This understanding will also extend to the thousands of families who have been affected by large-scale eviction exercises in Assam and lost their homes.
“If they have been evicted, that means they cannot be registered as voters from that address. We have spoken to the DCs from the relevant areas, and they have said that those people do not continue to live in those places. However, those evicted are already voters and ordinary residents. So they must get their address shifted through form 8, whether they are temporarily residing in another constituency, or another place int the same district, even if it is a camp. If they don’t apply for this, then there could be an issue,” he said.
Apart from this, there are currently 94,277 D-voters (Doubtful Voters) in Assam whose cases are pending before Foreigners’ Tribunals and are not permitted to vote in elections until their citizenship is upheld by a tribunal. In the special revision, all their particulars will be carried forward to the draft electoral roll without any change. “Any modification, including removal or deletion, shall be made only upon receipt of an order from the competent Foreigners’ Tribunal or an appropriate court of law,” states the ECI’s notification.
With inputs from Damini Nath
Assam voter list revision: The Indian Express had first reported in July this year that the Assam government told the Election Commission of India (ECI) that since it is the only state to have already carried out the exercise of preparing the NRC, this should be factored in whenever the poll panel frames its timelines and decides the list of eligibility documents for the state’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR). (Photo: File) 
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