Six Opposition parties on Sunday flagged what they described as the ruling BJP’s “deliberate attempt to influence and subvert the due process of law” governing the ongoing special revision (SR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Assam.
After a joint press conference in Guwahati, the parties submitted a memorandum to chief electoral officer Anurag Goel, listing alleged irregularities, including an attempt to tamper with electoral roll-related records by people “linked” to the BJP inside the Boko co-district commissioner’s office in Kamrup district on the night of January 22. The final electoral roll is due to be published on February 10.
The delegation met Goel for nearly two hours. Leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia sought registration of a suo motu FIR against those involved in the alleged “tampering” and urged the CEO to issue notice to chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma over what he called the politics of hatred, referring to Sarma’s remarks targeting the Muslim community. Sarma had said on Saturday that “they will receive notices under SR rules or else they will walk over our head”.
At the media interaction, Saikia said: “The duty of the Election Commission is to prepare a correct electoral roll for Indian citizens. Instead, the process is being politicised to create divisions among people.” He added: “In Assam, instead of adding voters, names of genuine voters — especially minorities — are being deleted by branding them as dead or permanently shifted.”
Besides Saikia, the delegation included Congress MP Rakibul Hussain, CPM MLA Manoranjan Talukdar, Raijor Dal MLA Akhil Gogoi, Assam Jatiya Parishad president Lurinjyoti Gogoi, CPI state secretary Kanak Gogoi and CPIML leader Pankaj Das.
A statement issued by the Assam PCC said Raijor Dal’s Akhil Gogoi alleged the BJP had taken “complete control” of the electoral machinery. He reiterated his earlier claim that state BJP president Dilip Saikia told party leaders in a January 4 video conference that minister Ashok Singhal had been given the “task” of ensuring deletion of “non-BJP voters” in 60 of the 126 constituencies.
The memorandum flagged “unlawful and illegal interference” in the SR process at the Kamrup co-district office. It alleged that three BJP functionaries — Prahlad Biswas, Mrinmoy Boro and Buddheswar Rava — were “frequently sitting” inside the office and “instructing/influencing” officials to issue bulk notices during the SR process.
It also flagged Sarma’s January 24 “categorical public statement” suggesting a particular community would be targeted during SR, calling it arbitrary, mala fide and unconstitutional.
The memorandum sought, among other steps:
- The rejection of bulk objections without hearings.
- Legal action against those filing fake objections.
- Reasonable time for voters to respond in genuine cases.
- No suo-moto deletions.
- Relief for eviction-affected voters to file Form 8.
- Stoppage of political interference.
- Action against officials acting under pressure.
- Prevention of coercion of BLOs.
- FIRs against the three BJP leaders named.
- Strict directions barring the chief minister, BJP leaders and workers from interfering in the SR exercise.
