Guwahati: Trinamool Congress (TMC) Rajya Sabha MP and national spokesperson Sushmita Dev has launched a sharp attack on the Election Commission of India over the upcoming Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Assam’s electoral rolls, warning that the process could result in the deletion of 30 to 40 lakh voters ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections.
Speaking at a press conference in Guwahati on Saturday, Dev accused the Election Commission of overstepping its constitutional boundaries and acting in a politically motivated manner.
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Flanked by TMC Senior Vice President Dulu Ahmed and General Secretary Sisir Kalita, she warned that the revision exercise could disproportionately affect the poor, rural residents, and minorities—many of whom lack formal birth certificates or other documentation.
“We spent six years showing documents under the NRC process. Now, we are being asked to prove our identity again. How many people in rural Assam even have birth certificates?” Dev said, reiterating her concerns on social media platform X.
She alleged that the SIR, which uses January 1, 2026, as the qualifying date, is being misused by the BJP-led Assam government and the Election Commission to delete names from the voter list by encouraging Form 7 submissions—a form used to object to names on the electoral roll.
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Drawing a parallel with Bihar, where she claimed around 65 lakh voters were removed during a similar revision, Dev voiced fears that Assam could witness a comparable scale of voter deletions. She also cited concerns about similar trends in Kerala, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu—states where the BJP is not in power—suggesting a broader pattern of disenfranchisement in opposition strongholds.
“This is not electoral hygiene. This is targeted voter cleansing,” Dev alleged, accusing the Election Commission of functioning as a political tool rather than a neutral constitutional authority.
She further argued that determining citizenship falls under the purview of the Union Home Ministry, not the Election Commission, and questioned the legality of the EC demanding birth certificates for voter verification.
“Who gave the Election Commission the right to determine citizenship? This is administrative overreach, plain and simple,” she said.
Dev’s remarks reflect growing opposition from the INDIA bloc, which has been critical of the SIR exercise in multiple states. Several opposition parties have also approached the courts, alleging that the EC’s revision drives are paving the way for mass voter deletions under the pretext of cleansing electoral rolls.
Assam’s political landscape remains highly sensitive on issues of identity and citizenship, particularly in the aftermath of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise, which excluded nearly 19 lakh people from its final list. Many of these individuals still await resolution or documentation, making the new voter verification initiative a politically charged issue.
The state is scheduled to hold Assembly elections in mid-2026, with 126 seats in contention. While the BJP, in power since 2016, will look to retain its hold, issues surrounding land evictions, citizenship, and now voter roll revisions are giving the opposition fresh ground to mobilize.
With her fiery remarks, Sushmita Dev has signaled the beginning of what could be a high-stakes electoral battle in Assam—one where the core issues of voter identity, documentation, and disenfranchisement are set to dominate the discourse in the months ahead.