Assam yet to get SIR roadmap as NRC action plan still awaited

New Delhi|Guwahati: While the ECI on May 14 announced phase-3 of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across the remaining 16 states and three Union territories and even talked of plans for a later date for Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh, one exception stands out starkly -- Assam.

The only poll-bound state of early 2026 which did not have to undergo SIR -- Assam -- now also remains the only state without a clear SIR calendar or plan.

The big stumbling block -- the National Register of Citizens (NRC) -- still stays unresolved even after a newly-elected government is in place in the state.


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Incidentally, both the BJP-led Assam government and the Chief Electoral Officer of Assam had separately conveyed to the Election Commission in late 2025 that the SIR should only be conducted in Assam after the upcoming assembly elections and once the NRC is notified.

At that time, it was conveyed to the poll panel that the NRC would be notified by mid-2026 with Aadhaar-like data regime, following which the SIR exercise can be conducted.

ET gathers that not much progress has been made on this front so far.

"It is for certain that SIR will happen but cannot put a date to it. The last update was that the home department was creating an Aadhaar-like regime for NRC data and that should be completed by August this year, after which the NRC will be finalised. The new government has just been sworn in. NRC will hopefully be taken up once the government settles in by next month," an official with knowledge of the issue told ET.

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Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, while announcing SIR for other states, had said in October 2025 that a separate order for Assam SIR would be issued, given its citizenship complexities.

"There are separate provisions for Assam's citizenship in the law, and a drive to check valid citizens has already been done under the Supreme Court's observation. A separate order for SIR in Assam will be issued," he said at the press conference.

He added that under the supervision of the top court, the checking of citizenship in Assam is about to be completed.

There is, however, no clarity so far on either the notification of NRC nor the EC's SIR order for the state.

Electoral roll revision has always been a complex exercise in Assam and NRC has been the key factor at play for years now.

Due to this, unlike Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Puducherry which had to conduct the SIR days ahead of the assembly polls, Assam was able to skip the exercise then and instead underwent a summary revision of its electoral rolls.

The state's electoral rolls last had an intensive revision in 1997 when the ECI, for the first time, tagged over 94,000 voters in the state as 'doubtful' or 'D voters, a contentious issue till date.

The National Register of Citizens (NRC) updation followed, which was a Supreme Court monitored exercise aimed at weeding out illegal immigrants.

The supplementary NRC list, published on August 31, 2019, had found more than 31.1 million people eligible to be included in the registry while leaving out over 1.9 million people.

The updation process of NRC in Assam continues to be caught in a logjam as years after the publication of the supplementary list, rejection slips are yet to be issued to those excluded to enable them to challenge the decision at the Foreigners Tribunal (FT).

The Assam government also filed petitions in the Supreme Court seeking correction of NRC.