Assam Wants NRC Considered In EC’s Voter Roll Revision, Amid Bihar Row

Officials from Assam have informed the Election Commission (EC) that as the only state to have completed the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise, this should be taken into account while framing timelines and determining the list of admissible documents for the state’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, The Indian Express stated.

Sources in the Assam government said that since the EC is factoring in citizenship to determine eligibility for inclusion in the electoral roll, and considering Assam had already conducted a citizenship verification exercise, the final NRC, once published, should be considered a valid document for the SIR.

This comes even as Opposition parties alleged that the Bihar Special Summary Revision (SIR) had effectively become a citizenship verification exercise — “an NRC through the backdoor” which, they argue, falls outside the Election Commission’s mandate.

Meanwhile, Assam’s request was reportedly made following the Commission’s recent announcement of a nationwide intensive revision of electoral rolls beginning with Bihar which could potentially delay the SIR in the state. The reason lies in the unresolved status of the Assam NRC, a Supreme Court-monitored initiative aimed at addressing long-standing demographic concerns.

Since the release of the draft National Register of Citizens in 2019, which excluded 19.6 lakh out of 3.3 crore applicants, the Registrar General of India has yet to officially notify it. Successive BJP-led governments in Assam have also deemed the current version of the NRC unacceptable.

Originally intended to identify Indian citizens and distinguish them from undocumented migrants in a state long fraught with political turmoil over illegal immigration, the NRC has drawn a lot of criticism. The state government argues that the current list contains significant errors, the most significant one being that it allegedly excludes many “indigenous people” while including a substantial number of “foreigners.”

Officials further contended that the actual number of people who entered Assam illegally after the NRC’s cut-off date of March 24, 1971, was much higher than 19 lakh.

The question of reverification had been raised by the Central and state government even before the 2019 NRC was finalised but had been denied by the Supreme Court.

On July 23, 2019, the Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman noted that NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela had submitted evidence of 27% reverification already being carried out during the claims and objections process. Based on this, the court deemed further sample reverification unnecessary.

However, in a special Assembly session held last month, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma stated that the state government is still pursuing 20% reverification in districts bordering Bangladesh and 10% in the remaining districts.

“We believe the NRC data, having undergone both verification and reverification, will serve as a reliable document to prove citizenship. It can be considered among the documents for the intensive revision process,” sources have said.

A query to the Election Commission (EC) on Assam’s request regarding electoral roll revision went unanswered. Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma stated there had been no “correspondence” with the EC on the issue.

The EC’s decision to begin intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar had drawn political opposition, with some parties moving the Supreme Court against the move. The controversy centres around the list of documents voters, particularly those registered after 2003, must submit to prove age and citizenship.

The 2003 cut-off year marks the last intensive revision in Bihar. Those listed in that year are presumed citizens and eligible for inclusion in the new rolls. Petitioners have challenged the EC’s authority to verify citizenship and questioned the timing and procedure of the exercise.

While the Supreme Court declined to halt the process, it urged the EC to consider additional IDs like Aadhaar, voter ID, and ration cards alongside its original list of 11 acceptable documents, which includes government-issued IDs, educational certificates, caste certificates, and the NRC (where applicable).