Assam’s leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia has written to chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the chief electoral officer of Assam, alleging large-scale irregularities in the ongoing special revision (SR) of the electoral rolls across the state, demanding a comprehensive post-verification review.

In a five-page memorandum submitted on Thursday — the final day of the claims and objections phase of the revision exercise — the Congress MLA from Nazira flagged discrepancies in the verification process and claimed that legitimate voters were being arbitrarily excluded, particularly in minority-dominated areas.

He said that the issue was not isolated to his Nazira constituency, but part of a larger pattern that merited urgent institutional scrutiny. Saikia has claimed, that most of the affected electors are Muslims and other indigenous people, who have been residing in the Nazira area since the pre-independence period, and “coupled with the lack of clarity, transparency, and accountability” on the part of the BLOs, “creates a strong perception that the actions of certain BLOs and local political actors may be operating in coordination to exclude legitimate voters from the electoral process.”

The revision of the electoral rolls is being carried out under the supervision of the Election Commission of India in poll-bound Assam, which goes to polls in March-April. The final roll will be published next month.

Saikia’s letter cited instances of discrepancies in Biswanath district, where alive voters were allegedly recorded as dead and minority voters faced selective harassment. The “striking similarity” between incidents in Biswanath and those now being observed in Nazira strongly suggests these are not isolated lapses, he claimed.

He also claimed that local BJP leaders in Nazira were directly involved in the removal of names from the electoral roll. In discussions with BLOs, he said they were unable to provide a clear reason for the deletions, raising “serious concerns about transparency, accountability, and adherence to due process”.

The Congress had earlier staged a protest in Guwahati on January 6, alleging widespread irregularities in the draft electoral roll. The All Assam Minorities Students’ Union (AAMSU) has also flagged arbitrary deletions and discrimination. The Raijor Dal, meanwhile, accused BJP state president Dilip Saikia of informing party MLAs that minister Ashok Singhal had been “entrusted” with deleting anti-BJP voters in 60 of the state’s 126 constituencies.

Saikia’s letter demanded a “comprehensive post-verification review” in all Assembly constituencies, including Nazira, to identify cases of “false, misleading, or incorrect reporting”, including wrongful classification of living voters as dead, and to fix accountability in cases of procedural negligence or misconduct.

He also called for the results of the verification process to be examined for any evidence of selective targeting of communities. It must be ensured that no community or social group is disproportionately affected by this process, he said.

Further, he urged the Election Commission to strengthen monitoring of booth-level officials and assistant electoral registration officers and to issue immediate directions preventing deletion of any name without due process — including proper notice, opportunity for a hearing, and reasoned orders from the competent authority.

He also demanded that names wrongly marked as “dead”, “absent”, or “shifted” be restored suo motu, pending final determination.