Guwahati: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has directed a Special Revision of Assam’s electoral rolls, a move that aims to clean up errors, add new voters and strengthen trust in the voting process before the 2026 Assembly elections. The updated rolls will be based on a qualifying date of January 1, 2026, and the final list will be published on February 10, 2026.
Unlike the rigorous Special Intensive Revision happening in 12 other states, Assam’s process has been kept lighter and more flexible to suit the state’s long and sensitive history with citizenship documentation. Voters will not be required to submit enumeration forms or extra papers. Instead, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will visit homes to verify entries, remove duplicates, record deaths and update the names of people who have shifted.
Officials say the main focus will be on hard-to-reach riverine and border areas, where errors and impersonation have been longstanding concerns. District administrations have been asked to hold awareness camps and help first-time voters aged 18 and 19 understand the process. Senior citizens will also get special attention to ensure their names remain on the rolls.
This revision builds on groundwork started in September, when officials compared the current rolls with voter data from 2005, the last time Assam saw a large-scale update. Today, the electorate stands at about 2.24 crore, with the highest numbers in the 20–29 age bracket.
Assam’s voter list has drawn scrutiny since the 2019 NRC, which excluded nearly 19 lakh people. Because those cases are still under court-supervised review, the ECI kept Assam out of the nationwide SIR phases earlier this year and opted for this milder, Assam-specific method.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma called the ECI directive a “welcome step,” saying it would help ensure clean and accurate voter rolls. He has repeatedly flagged the need to update lists in char areas, where turnout often raises questions, and has supported Aadhaar-linked checks to prevent duplication.
The revision comes after the 2023 delimitation, which redrew boundaries and increased polling stations by nearly 35 per cent to improve access. With elections due by April 2026, all major parties — the BJP, Congress and AIUDF — are watching the process closely.
Reactions have been mostly positive, though cautious. Groups like the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) have backed the update but demanded that no genuine citizen be removed by mistake. Their concern draws from incidents in other states, where rushed verification during SIR drives led to wrongful deletions and overworked BLOs.
Election experts say Assam’s approach strikes a middle path. It avoids the heavy paperwork that caused large-scale exclusions in states like Bihar, while still giving officials room to fix longstanding errors.
As BLOs begin door-to-door visits across all 126 constituencies, voters can also check their details or file corrections online through the Chief Electoral Officer’s portal. The ECI hopes that this Special Revision will deliver a cleaner, more reliable voter list and help set the tone for a smoother election season in 2026.
