Voter mapping begins in Assam ahead of roll overhaul

Guwahati: With assembly elections expected in early 2026, Assam has kicked off its pre-SIR activity with a comprehensive voter-mapping exercise, matching voters listed in the 2025 electoral roll with those from the 2005 rolls — the last time such intensive revision was undertaken in the state.The process is mandated to be completed by Oct 7.The goal is to identify legacy voters, track demographic shifts, and eliminate discrepancies, ensuring that the 2025 roll reflects a clean, inclusive, and accountable voter base in the wake of the constituency delimitation in 2023 that redrew boundaries across all the 126 assembly seats in the state.As per the directives circulated to booth level officers (BLOs), they are required to map and mark electors directly on the 2025 roll, categorizing them into four distinct groups based on their year of birth and presence of their name in the 2005 rolls.To ensure accurate categorization and continuity of voter records, the BLOs will have to adhere to detailed verification protocols during the mapping process. These include being vigilant about discrepancies in age and household identifiers, using contextual clues from neighbouring entries to confirm voter identity, checking similarity of family members name in both rolls and flagging any doubtful or mismatched entries for re-checking.

Along with the voter mapping, there is also matching of polling stations in 2025 with those in 2005 to mark polling stations that exist in both the years, polling stations newly added in 2025 and those present in 2005 but missing from the 2025. This process has already been completed.