The Election Commission excluding poll-bound Assam from the nationwide Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls is only a reflection of persistent legal ambiguities in the determination of citizenship in the state, which have precipitated the anxieties among the indigenous population over the influx of illegal Bangladeshis. The EC leaving out Assam from the nationwide SIR is attributed to the application of a separate framework of citizenship followed in the state and the incomplete process of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state. It is a striking paradox that Assam has been awaiting a thorough revision of its electoral rolls for more than the past four and a half decades, but the state has been excluded from the nationwide process of cleaning the rolls of illegal and invalid entries. Ironically, the deletion of names of illegal Bangladeshi migrants from electoral rolls after their detection and their subsequent expulsion from India constitute the core clauses of the Assam Accord. It was a special revision of the electoral rolls undertaken during the by-election to the Mangaldoi Lok Sabha constituency in 1978 which corroborated the apprehension of lakhs of illegal Bangladeshis managing to enrol their names in electoral rolls of the state, posing a threat to the political supremacy of Assamese and other indigenous communities in the state. The shocking revelation ignited the historic anti-foreigners’ movement in 1979, which culminated in the signing of the Assam Accord in 1985. For the next two decades, deletion of illegal Bangladeshis’ names remained entangled in legal complexities, as the erstwhile Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983, delayed the entire process of detection of illegal migrants, as it placed the onus of proving whether a person is a foreigner or not on the complainant rather than on the accused. It was in 2005, when the Supreme Court struck down the IM(DT) Act as ultra vires the Constitution of India in the Sarbananda Sonowal versus Union of India case. The SC observed that “a deep analysis of the IMDT Act and the Rules made thereunder would reveal that they have been purposely so enacted or made so as to give shelter or protection to illegal migrants who came to Assam from Bangladesh on or after 25th March, 1971, rather than to identify and deport them.” With the India-Bangladesh border remaining porous, one can imagine the dangerous scale of the influx of illegal Bangladeshis into Assam, who also managed to enrol themselves in the electoral rolls in the state, posing an existential threat to indigenous people as the illegal migrants also started encroaching on government land, forest land, and xatra land, changing the demography in several districts. When the project of updating the NRC was initiated, it triggered fresh hope of identification of the illegal migrant, deletion of their names and subsequent deportation. Sadly, the NRC process failed to allay the apprehension of Assamese people after several cases of inclusion of illegal Bangladeshi names in the draft updated list. The state government as well as different organisations including the All Assam Students’ Union are insisting on reverification of the updated NRC in Assam to ensure compilation of a correct list of Indian citizens in the state but the petitions seeking reverification is currently pending before the apex court. The Manual on Electoral Rolls allows the Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) to refer to the NRC, “wherever it exists”, while determining the citizenship of an individual to decide on the eligibility as a voter. Once the final NRC list is published in the state, EROs will be able to refer to it during revision of electoral rolls or citizenship certificates issued by competent authority, passports or birth certificates for deciding claims for new entry or disposal of objections against entries. Expeditious publication of the final NRC list is easier said than done given the legal complexities due to pending cases and the long-drawn process of disposal of cases of NRC applicants whose names have been excluded, in the higher judiciary against the official order for exclusion of their names from the updated lists. Because of these legal complexities, the EROs will not be able to refer to the NRC for carrying out a revision of electoral rolls ahead of the 2026 assembly polls in the state. Scrutiny of other valid legal documents being very tight and strict will be crucial to determine citizenships and decide the claims for and objections to enrolment in the electoral rolls. Assam has already been compelled to accept the huge burden of two decades of unchecked illegal migrants from erstwhile East Pakistan even after carrying the baggage of erstwhile East Bengal immigrants, while the unabated influx from Bangladesh precipitated the demographic threat. The revision of electoral rolls is an urgent national priority, as presence of illegal Bangladeshi migrants in Assam is not merely a demographic threat to Assamese people but a grave threat to national security. Nonetheless, exclusion of Assam from SIR only extends its endless wait for clean electoral rolls.