Arunachal Congress seeks transparency, constituency-wise scrutiny of final electoral roll

The Arunachal Pradesh Congress on Wednesday sought greater transparency and constituency-wise scrutiny of the final electoral roll published following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).

The party also claimed that the state's electorate had declined by more than 21 per cent from the pre-revision figure.

The final electoral roll, published on Tuesday, has 6.96 lakh voters, a reduction of 1.91 lakh from the pre-SIR count.

The final list comprises 3,43,709 male voters, 3,52,315 female voters and two third-gender electors.

In a statement, the Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) urged election authorities to ensure that every deletion from the electoral roll has a lawful and verifiable basis. It also said no eligible voter should be excluded because of administrative errors or difficulties in reaching remote areas.

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

The APCC said the "substantial reduction" in the electorate warranted public access to constituency-wise and category-wise data on additions and deletions, along with broad reasons for exclusions, while maintaining privacy safeguards.

The party said it would examine the final SIR data and bring any discrepancies it independently verifies to the notice of the electoral authorities.  (with inputs from PTI)