Guwahati: Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev has written to the Chief Election Commissioner of India expressing serious concern over the ongoing Special Revision of Electoral Rolls in Assam, warning that the hurried exercise could lead to large-scale wrongful deletions and denial of voting rights to genuine citizens.
In her letter dated January 23, Dev questioned the transparency and fairness of the process, especially in the backdrop of the unresolved National Register of Citizens (NRC). She pointed out that although the NRC update was conducted over six years under Supreme Court supervision, the final list published on August 31, 2019, remains unnotified due to anomalies, leaving the extensive data unused for electoral verification.
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The MP highlighted a surge in objections filed under Form-7 for deletion of names, alleging that many were submitted in bulk by untraceable persons or individuals who later denied filing them. Citing a petition from Masughat Gaon Panchayat in Cachar district, she alleged misuse of the process by a BJP activist acting as a Block Level Agent.
Dev also flagged the tight schedule, noting that while objections closed on January 22, hearings are to be completed by February 2, ahead of final roll publication on February 10. She said the timeline makes fair hearings nearly impossible given thousands of objections reported across constituencies such as Silchar, Jorhat and Mangaldoi. Warning of panic and distress among voters, Dev urged the Election Commission to extend the hearing period and ensure that no citizen is disenfranchised during the revision process.
