Following the house-to-house verification of the voter lists under the Election Commission of India's (ECI) special revision exercise carried out in the State from November 22 to December 20, the names of 10.56 lakh voters were removed from the draft electoral rolls for Assam, which were released on Saturday, December 27, 2025.
Nearly 4.79 lakh of the removed voters are deceased, more than 5.23 lakh have moved away, and 53,619 had duplicate entries on the voter list.
In Bihar, the ECI has already finished a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral records; in twelve other States and Union Territories, the SIR is now under progress. In contrast to these states, Assam is undergoing a "special revision" of electoral records rather than a SIR.
"The House-to-House (H2H) verification phase of the Special Revision (SR) - 2026 in Assam has been completed by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
An inclusive, accurate, and transparent electoral roll for the state was the goal of this endeavor, according to a statement by Assam's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO).
The CEO's office reports that there are 2,52,02,775 electors in Assam. However, this includes about 93,000 "D Voters," whose cases are pending before Foreigners Tribunals and who are unable to cast ballots until a court upholds their citizenship.
According to the CEO's office, there are 2,51,09,754 electors in the state if these names are taken out. Each of them was visited in 61,03,103 homes throughout the state.
With the release of the draft rolls, the deadline for submitting claims and objections has begun and will run through January 22.
According to the CEO's statement, electors can submit Form 7 to object to the planned inclusion of a name or to have a name removed from the current roll.
New electors can ask for a claim to be included in the roll by filling out Form 6. To request a change of residence in the electoral records, those who have moved away from their previous registered location must complete Form 8.
On February 10, Assam will release the final electoral roll. Elections for the State's Assembly are planned for 2026. Hearings for almost 32 lakh "unmapped" voters in neighboring West Bengal, which is also scheduled to hold elections next year, started on Saturday, December 27, as part of the SIR procedure.
Such "unmapped" voters with no documented connections to the 2002 voters' list waited in line at some 3,234 hearing desks located throughout the state to have their identification documents, photos, signatures, and thumbprints recorded and validated.
The names of 58,20,899 voters were removed from the electoral lists in the draft electoral rolls that were released during the first phase of the SIR in West Bengal on December 16, bringing the state's electorate down to 7.08 crore.
About 32 lakh "unmapped" voters were among the 58 lakh removals. According to sources in the West Bengal CEO's office, hearings for these unmapped voters will take place until February 7 across 11 desks in each of the 294 Assembly constituencies, with 294 electoral registration officers (EROs), 3,200 assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs), more than 80,000 booth-level officers (BLOs), and 4,600 micro-observers present. On February 14, the State's final voter list will be released.
The ECI recently selected Union government officials as micro-observers to examine hearings and participate in the document verification process in West Bengal.
Given that West Bengal had the fewest voter deletions among the states going through the SIR process, Abhishek Banerjee, general secretary of the Trinamool Congress, questioned the necessity of this.
Tensions were reported at the hearing center in Asansol, when supporters of the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) engaged in verbal altercations, even though the majority of hearings ended amicably on Saturday, December 27.
In some cases, electors over 80 were also observed traveling great distances to attend hearings. Alternative arrangements were being developed for electors over 85 who got notices for hearings, according to sources in the CEO's office.
The family of Trinamool MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, the party's main whip in the Lok Sabha, has reportedly received hearing notices.
"The assertion is false. The enumeration form makes it quite evident that there is no connection. The West Bengal CEO office tweeted, "Therefore, they are called for hearing in accordance with the pertinent provisions of the notification of ECI."
