Assam publishes final voters list, drops over 2.43 lakh names

Assam's final electoral roll comprises nearly 1.25 crore men, over 1.24 crore women and 343 third gender voters

After a Special Revision (SR), the Election Commission published the final voters list for poll-bound Assam on Tuesday, with over 2.43 lakh names deleted from the draft roll.

At the end of claims and objections, the final roll has been published with a total of 2.49 crore voters, a decrease of 0.97 percent from the draft roll, a statement issued by the office of the Assam Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said.

The final electoral roll comprises nearly 1.25 crore men, over 1.24 crore women and 343 third gender voters.

In the final list, over 2.43 lakh names were deleted from the draft roll, according to the statement. The draft list, published on December 27 last year, had 2.52 crore enrolled voters.

The statement added that, as per the appeal mechanism, any decision by an electoral registration officer can be appealed to the district magistrate within 15 days, with a second appeal available to the CEO within 30 days.

The Assam assembly elections are due in a few months, which will be held on the basis of this list.

The draft roll during the SR process had registered a 1.35 per cent increase from the previous final roll published in January 2025.

During the SR exercise, 4,78,992 deceased electors and 5,23,680 shifted electors were identified. Another 53,619 multiple entries were identified. The changes based on these were reflected only in the final roll, published after end of claims and objections process.

Eligible voters, whose names were deleted from the final roll on the grounds of having "permanently shifted", can apply for inclusion of their names under a provision of the Representation of the People (RP) Act, 1950.

Meanwhile, people who have shifted from their earlier places of residence due to various reasons, including eviction drives, and find their names excluded from the final rolls can apply now, an official told PTI.

"If they could not apply for shifting of their names before the deletion, they can now apply for inclusion at their new address under a provision of the RP Act," he said.

The CEO had issued a letter in this regard to all district election officers (DEOs) last week, a copy of which is available with PTI.

"In view of recent displacements in Assam due to various reasons or administrative actions, some electors were removed from the rolls as 'permanently shifted' but were unable to submit applications for shifting, as only one form can be processed during a single revision," the letter said.

It referred to provisions allowing an elector to appeal under Section 24 of the RP Act, 1950, within the prescribed time to the DEO against deletion of their name, or to submit Form 6 for inclusion of their name in the electoral roll during summary revision or continuous updation.

Form 6 is used for new voter enrolment and, in this case, can be used only by those electors whose names were deleted from their previous locations but could not submit Form 8 (shifting of residence or correction of entries) as a Form 7 (objection or deletion) was already in process against their names, the official explained.

The CEO has instructed DEOs to conduct "rigorous checks" while processing Form 6 applications under this provision to ensure that no ineligible voter is enrolled and all eligible electors are correctly included, he said.

The SR exercise had stirred much controversy in the state with opposition parties alleging that it was being used for "vote theft" and genuine citizens, particularly of a religious minority community, were being harassed during the process.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had indicated that only 'Miyas' were being served notice during the SR process as a tactic to "keep them under pressure", and said that more than five lakh complaints were filed by BJP workers against "illegal Bangladeshis".

'Miya' is originally a pejorative term used for Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam and the non-Bengali speaking people generally identify them as Bangladeshi immigrants. In recent years, activists from the community have started adopting this term as a gesture of defiance.