Evicted from homes, thousands in Assam now fighting to stay on voter rolls

As Assam’s Special Revision of electoral rolls enters its most sensitive phase, thousands of families uprooted by the state’s sweeping eviction drives are now battling a new anxiety: the fear of being struck off the voter list.

Across the state, people whose homes were demolished in recent years have begun receiving notices from electoral officials asking them to prove where they now live — and, by extension, whether they still qualify to vote from their earlier addresses.

The move has triggered alarm among eviction-hit families, many of whom are already living in fragile, makeshift conditions after being forced off land where they had been registered as voters for years.

Over the last five years, large-scale evictions on forest land, sattra land and other government property have displaced more than 50,000 families, the overwhelming majority of them Bengali-origin Muslims. With their homes gone and their addresses changed overnight, many now find themselves summoned to hearings over what election authorities describe as “objections” to their presence on the rolls.

In Hojai district, families evicted from the Lutumari Reserve Forest in November 2025 were served notices on January 7, asking them to appear before the District Commissioner on January 12. The official communication was blunt: they had “permanently shifted”.

“You are directed to be present at the hearing with such evidence as you may like to adduce. The ground of objection is permanently shifted,” the notices said.

For many of the recipients — daily-wage earners and small farmers now staying with relatives or in rented rooms — the wording was chilling, raising fears that their voting rights were at risk.

‘This is not about deletion,’ say officials

Election authorities insist the process is being misunderstood. Hojai election officer Aradhana Das said the notices were meant to track voters, not to disenfranchise them.

“This is not a deletion mechanism,” she said. “These people were in an evicted area, so they need to inform us where they are staying now so that their vote can be transferred accordingly. Many have moved to their parents’ or relatives’ homes. If it falls under the same polling station, nothing changes. If not, it will be shifted. The verification will be done by BLOs and Gaon Buras.”

At hearings, she added, people brought documents ranging from Aadhaar and PAN cards to land papers and rent agreements — even though they were not formally asked to do so.

Yet among eviction-hit families, the anxiety has not faded.

Minority groups demand safeguards

The Hojai unit of the All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU) has written to the District Commissioner, demanding that the inclusion of evictees’ names in the rolls be “ensured” through awareness campaigns and by giving people a “reasonable opportunity” to file Form 8 — the application used to change one’s address in the voter list.

“Encroachment and voting rights are two completely separate matters,” said AAMSU leader Monawar Hussain. “They are Indian citizens and existing voters. Wherever they are staying now, their voting rights must be protected without harassment.”

Similar scenes are playing out elsewhere. In Nalbari district, over 90 families evicted from VGR land last June — now living in camp-like conditions — were also called in for hearings.

“They only asked where we are staying now. We said we are nearby. That’s it. We don’t know what happens next,” said Rohim Badsha, one of those served a notice.

In Goalpara, where more than 900 hectares were cleared in multiple eviction drives last year, district authorities have begun issuing notices as well. Some families, like Suleman Ali’s, are still in the dark.

“Our names were there in the draft electoral roll published on December 27. We are staying near our old polling station, some on rent, some with relatives. But we haven’t been told anything yet,” Ali said.

Goalpara DC Prodip Timung said evictees who take rented accommodation nearby can retain their voting status in the district. Those originally from other districts, he said, would need to get their votes transferred back home.

Why this matters now

Assam is currently undergoing a Special Revision — not a full Special Intensive Revision — of its electoral rolls, based on house-to-house verification by Booth Level Officers. The exercise has already flagged nearly 4.8 lakh deceased voters, over 5.2 lakh “shifted” electors and more than 53,000 duplicate entries for correction.

The draft roll of 2.52 crore voters published on December 27 does not yet reflect these changes. During the ongoing claims and objections phase, voters must file the relevant forms — Form 6 for new inclusion, Form 8 for address change — to regularise what officials have found on the ground.

A senior election official warned that those flagged as “shifted” who fail to apply for an address change could, in theory, be deleted. But even then, there would be a window of more than a month after the final list is published on February 10 to seek correction.

For families already stripped of their homes, however, the prospect of also losing their vote feels like a second eviction — this time from democracy itself.