Mizoram has become the first state in the country to complete 100 per cent digitisation of the enumeration process under the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The milestone was announced by Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Garima Gupta during a meeting with representatives of recognised political parties on July 4 following the publication of the draft electoral roll under SIR 2026.
The achievement comes at a time when the Special Intensive Revision has become a politically sensitive exercise in several parts of the country. In Mizoram, however, election officials, political parties, civil society organisations and grassroots election workers say the process has largely progressed through cooperation and extensive field verification. Gupta thanked political parties, election officials, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and Booth Level Agents (BLAs) for completing the enumeration phase successfully.
The publication of the draft electoral roll marked an important stage in the revision, and the claims and objections period will remain open from July 4 to August 4. During this time, eligible citizens can apply for inclusion, correction, transposition or deletion of names. Gupta urged voters to verify their entries carefully to ensure that no eligible voter was left out and that ineligible names were removed.
Representatives of political parties attending the meeting expressed satisfaction with how the exercise had been conducted and acknowledged the work carried out by BLOs and BLAs across the state. Soft copies of the draft electoral roll were distributed to all recognised political parties during the meeting.
The success of the exercise has been attributed to the strong spirit of cooperation in Mizoram’s close-knit society. Dilys Puii, a BLO in charge of the SIR process in Aizawl area, said that the collaboration between communities, NGOs and Local Councils was exceptional. Amawia Chawngthu, an assistant BLO, added that the process involved repeated visits to households and significant manual assistance to residents unfamiliar with the forms.
However, the completion of the digitisation process has also been accompanied by questions raised by civil society organisations over the accuracy of the electoral rolls. The Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), Mizoram’s apex student organisation, expressed support for the Special Intensive Revision while calling for rigorous verification to ensure that only eligible Indian citizens are included in the electoral rolls. The organisation submitted a formal complaint to the Chief Electoral Officer seeking detailed scrutiny of 195 villages it identified for further examination.
Questions over the electoral rolls also figured at an all-party meeting, where political parties adopted a series of resolutions concerning the ongoing Special Intensive Revision. The parties resolved that entries appearing in the SIR 2026 draft electoral roll under the ‘No linkage with last SIR’ category should be removed if found to be ineligible, and called for all entries considered suspicious to be examined carefully in coordination with civil society organisations.
