Guwahati, February 11 A day after the Election Commission published the final voter list for the upcoming elections in Assam, with over 2.43 lakh names deleted from the draft rolls, the state's chief electoral officer, Anurag Goel, said on Wednesday that the authorities had ensured a "clean electoral roll."
Addressing a press conference here, he also said that the number of voters decreases wherever special revisions take place, citing instances of similar decreases during Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in other states.
At the end of the claims and objections process as part of Special Revision (SR) in Assam, the final list was published on Tuesday, with a total of 2.49 crore voters, a decrease of 0.97 per cent from the draft list.
Goel said, "Wherever SIR is happening, names get deleted. Here also, we worked diligently during SR to ensure a clean voter list."
He said that when Special Summary Revision (SSR) is undertaken annually, it is a routine update of the electoral roll, and the responsibility lies with the voters to come forward for additions, deletions, or corrections.
With SR being conducted here, it was the responsibility of the election authorities to ensure that the electoral roll is verified and cleaned, the CEO said.
The last intensive revision of the voter list in the state was conducted in 2004, and SIR was not conducted this time because the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) has not yet been notified, the CEO added.
He said that booth-level officers (BLOs) ensured 100 per cent coverage of voters and conducted household visits in 61,03,103 families during the SR process.
This led to the identification of 4,78,992 deceased voters, 5,23,680 shifted voters, and 53,619 multiple entries. Moreover, 6,27,696 people over 18 years of age who were not registered on the voter list, as well as 1,46,342 potential voters over 17 years of age, were identified.
The final voter list has 2,52,01,624 voters, including 92,087 "D-voters."
"Doubtful voters" (D-voters) are those who could not provide evidence in favor of their Indian nationality. The concept of D-voters was introduced in Assam in 1997 by the Election Commission. This does not exist anywhere else in India.
The draft list published in December last year during the SR process showed a 1.35 per cent increase from the previous final list published in January 2025.
The CEO further said that according to the appeal mechanism, any decision taken by an electoral registration officer (ERO) can be challenged to the district magistrate within 15 days, and there is an opportunity for a second appeal to the CEO within 30 days.
The Assam assembly elections are due in a few months.
