Arunachal Congress Calls for Transparency Over 1.91 Lakh Voter Reduction

The Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) on Wednesday sought greater transparency and constituency-wise scrutiny of the final electoral roll published following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), citing a sharp decline in the number of registered voters in the state.

The party said the electorate had fallen by more than 21 per cent from the pre-revision figure, and urged election authorities to ensure that every deletion was backed by a lawful and verifiable basis.

The final electoral roll, published on Tuesday, contains 6,96,026 voters, comprising 3,43,709 men, 3,52,315 women and two third-gender electors. This is a reduction of around 1.91 lakh voters from the pre-SIR count.

In a statement, the APCC said the scale of the reduction warranted public access to constituency-wise and category-wise information on additions and deletions. It also sought broad reasons for exclusions, subject to necessary privacy safeguards.

The SIR began on June 5, while the draft electoral roll was published on July 21 with 7,18,046 electors. Of these, 6,32,871 voters were mapped as self or progeny, while 85,175 electors remained unmapped.

The Congress said the final roll should be examined carefully to ensure that eligible voters had not been left out because of administrative errors or difficulties in reaching people living in remote and geographically challenging areas.

The party maintained that transparency in the revision process was particularly important given the substantial reduction in the electorate.

The APCC said it would independently examine the final SIR data and bring any discrepancies it verifies to the notice of the electoral authorities.

The demand comes amid wider political scrutiny of intensive electoral roll revisions, with parties and election authorities debating procedures for verifying voter eligibility and preventing wrongful exclusions.