Aizawl: The Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) has challenged Mizoram’s Chief Electoral Officer Garima Gupta’s assertion that the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) 2026 has not revealed any abnormal population growth, alleging significant increases in the number of voters in several Chakma-majority villages in the draft electoral roll.
Addressing a press conference at MZP’s office in Aizawl on Wednesday, the organisation said its examination of the draft electoral roll published under SIR 2026 had found unusually high increases in voter numbers in a number of villages in southern Mizoram, contradicting the Chief Electoral Officer’s recent remarks.
According to the MZP, Sumasumy village, which had 52 voters in the 2005 intensive electoral roll, now has 248 voters in the latest draft electoral roll, representing an increase of 376.92 per cent. The organisation claimed that seven villages recorded voter increases of more than 200 per cent, while 16 villages registered increases exceeding 100 per cent.
The student body said it had examined data from 95 villages and found that more than 30 had experienced voter growth of over 50 per cent. In contrast, it claimed that predominantly Mizo villages had generally recorded increases of only between 10 and 20 per cent over the same period.
The remarks come days after the Chief Electoral Officer stated that the Special Intensive Revision had not found evidence of abnormal population growth in the state. Mizoram recently became the first state in the country to complete 100 per cent digitisation of enumeration forms under the Election Commission of India’s SIR exercise, with the draft electoral roll published on July 4 following the completion of house-to-house verification and digitisation.
MZP also criticised the Chief Electoral Officer, alleging that insufficient attention had been given to the implementation of the revision exercise and calling for closer supervision of the process until all issues relating to the electoral roll are resolved.
The organisation further alleged that the mapping of five Assembly constituencies had not been carried out satisfactorily.
With the claims and objections period open from July 4 to August 4, MZP urged Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) and Booth Level Officers (BLOs) to exercise greater vigilance while hearing applications for inclusion, deletion and correction of names in the draft roll.
It also announced that it would work alongside the Young Lai Association (YLA) and Chakma student organisations to monitor the verification process during the claims and objections period.
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