Assam: Sushmita Dev alleges voter deletion in Special Revision, demands probe

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Assam Pradesh Trinamool Congress (APTC) on Monday alleged large-scale irregularities and deliberate deletion of genuine voters during the ongoing Special Revision (SR) of the electoral rolls, claiming that the process is being misused to harass citizens and disenfranchise voters.

Senior Trinamool Congress leader and Member of Rajya Sabha from West Bengal, Sushmita Dev met Assam’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Anurag Goel to raise concerns over what she described as an alarming and politically motivated misuse of the Special Revision (SR) exercise. The delegation submitted a memorandum demanding an impartial investigation into the alleged misuse of power and legal violations during the process. Addressing the media, Sushmita Dev alleged that the SR process is being used as a political tool by the BJP after its failure to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) effectively. She specifically pointed to the alleged misuse of Form 7, which allows one individual to question another person’s citizenship status. According to her, this provision is being widely abused to file baseless complaints against genuine Indian citizens.

Dev further alleged that nearly 15,000 objections were filed in a single Assembly constituency alone. She cited the example of the Trinamool Congress district president from Nalbari, against whom a complaint was filed, but the complainant failed to appear during the hearing before the Block Development Officer (BDO). She added that if the BJP is genuinely concerned about identifying foreigners, it should complete the NRC process instead of harassing citizens through intimidation and suspicion. The Trinamool Congress demanded a fair and judicial inquiry into the entire SR process.

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