The Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) has questioned the scale of voter exclusions during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Nagaland and urged the Election Commission to ensure that no eligible citizen is deprived of the right to vote.

In a statement, the NPCC rejected the BJP’s attempt to dismiss concerns over the SIR through its ‘Loktantra Bachao, Bheed Tantra Hatao’ campaign held in Dimapur on November 7. It said the official figures released by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Nagaland, raised questions about the number of electors not covered during the enumeration process.

According to the figures cited by the NPCC, Nagaland had a pre-SIR electorate of 13,57,208, of which 11,99,456 enumeration forms were collected, representing 88.38 per cent.

The enumeration identified 28,944 deceased electors (2.13 per cent), while 1,23,749 electors (9.12 per cent) were categorised as Absent/Shifted/Others and 5,059 (0.37 per cent) as duplicate or multiple enrolments. The total number of entries not covered by enumeration stood at 1,57,752.

The draft electoral roll contained 12,06,457 electors, including 7,001 service electors, reflecting a net reduction of 1,50,751 compared with the pre-SIR electorate.

The NPCC described the 1,23,749 electors categorised as Absent/Shifted/Others as a matter requiring particular scrutiny. It said the category could include people who were not found, had shifted residence or failed to submit enumeration forms within the stipulated deadline, and should not automatically be treated as illegal or ineligible voters.

The committee asked the BJP to clarify how many of these electors were genuinely ineligible and how many were eligible citizens left out of the draft roll.

It also stated that the BJP’s argument that entries flagged for verification were not necessarily deleted did not address the fact that 1,57,752 entries had not been carried forward through the enumeration process into the draft roll. Verification, it said, must protect genuine voters rather than merely reduce electoral figures.

Download Nagaland Tribune app on Google Play

The NPCC maintained that it did not oppose the cleaning up of electoral rolls, but stressed that the removal of deceased and duplicate entries should not result in eligible citizens losing their democratic right to vote.

The committee further stated that it had consistently raised concerns and protested against the SIR, citing the possible exclusion of genuine voters. It said the Election Commission’s subsequent decision to extend the revision process in Nagaland and a few other states until November 22 underscored the need for transparency, accountability and thorough verification.

Urging the Election Commission to ensure that no genuine voter was excluded due to administrative shortcomings or procedural difficulties, the NPCC called upon the BJP to address the questions arising from the state’s electoral data rather than dismissing the concerns as political propaganda.

The committee reiterated that the name of every eligible citizen must be protected in the electoral roll.