‘Voters Excluded From NRC Can Vote in Assam Assembly Polls’: CEC

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora

(Image Courtesy: IANS)

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora on Wednesday, 20 January, said those excluded from Assam's updated National Register of Citizens (NRC), if their names are on the final electoral rolls, can vote in the assembly polls likely to be held in April-May.

The updated NRC under the direct supervision of the Supreme Court was released on 31 August 2019, excluding the names of 19,06,657 persons. A total of 3,11,21,004 names were included out of 3,30,27,661 applicants.

The CEC cited a Union Home Ministry notification of 29 August 2019 that clarified that the exclusion of a person's name from the NRC does not amount to his or her declaration as a foreigner.

"Since the people, excluded in the NRC, have their names in the final voters' list, they can exercise their franchise in the elections," he told the media.

Those voters who were excluded from the NRC in Assam also cast their votes in the last Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

Meanwhile, the final electoral list in Assam on the basis of 1 January as the qualifying age, was published on Monday. Assembly polls are to be held on the basis of the final electoral rolls, which have enlisted a total of 2,29,92,505 voters including 1,12,34,579 women.

Compared to the final photo electoral roll of last year, the state has registered an increase of 2.46 percent voters in this year’s final voters’ list.

Arora, accompanied by Election Commissioners Sushil Chandra and Rajiv Kumar and senior officials, arrived in Guwahati on Monday and during the three days held a series of meetings with the political parties, police nodal officers, election related regulatory agencies, district deputy commissioners and police officers, state home secretary and other senior central and state officials to review the poll preparedness.

The EC also held meetings with Assam Chief Secretary Jishnu Baruah, Director General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, and Chief Electoral Officer Nitin Khade.

The full bench of the EC left Guwahati for Kolkata on Wednesday and during its three-day stay there would hold a similar exercise about the West Bengal assembly polls.

(This story has been published in an arrangement with IANS.)