Over 2,000 Bru Voters Removed From State Voter List In Mizoram

AIZAWL: Over 2,000 of the over 11,000 Bru voters in Mizoram had their names removed from the state voter registry after they registered to vote in neighbouring Tripura, an election official said on Monday.

The state election administration in Mizoram has so far received matching deletion requests for nearly 3000 names from its counterpart in Tripura, according to joint chief electoral officer David Liansanglura Pachuau.

According to him, 2,091 Bru voters' names have already been struck off the Mizoram voter list, and the process of removing the names of the other voters is ongoing.

The Bru voters, he claimed, came from nine assembly constituencies spread across three districts after they were unable to return to Mizoram during repatriations.

He claimed that of the disenfranchised Bru voters, 262 were from the southern Lunglei district and that 1,643 were from the Tripura bordering Mamit district, 187 were from the Assam bordering Kolasib district.

According to him, the deletion was carried out in accordance with the pertinent deletion orders sent by the Tripura election department via Electoral Roll Officer Net (ERONet).

They have spent the last twenty years residing in transit camps.

The killing of a Mizo villager by Bru militants in November 2009 not only foiled the initial effort at repatriation but also caused yet another wave of emigration.

Between 2009 and 2019, the federal government, the governments of Mizoram and Tripura, and others made at least nine attempts to bring the Bru indigenous people back to Tripura.

The Centre, the governments of Mizoram and Tripura, as well as leaders of various Bru organisations, struck an agreement on January 16, 2020, allowing over 35,000 displaced Bru tribal members who had the reluctance to return to Mizoram during repatriation to re-settle permanently in Tripura.

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