How Mizoram became the first state to complete SIR digitisation

Aizawl: Mizoram has frequently found itself at the top of national rankings in recent years, sometimes for reasons that have drawn concern and sometimes for achievements that have earned recognition. The state has recorded among the country’s highest rates of cancer incidence and HIV prevalence, while also becoming India’s first state to achieve full literacy. It has now added another first to that list by becoming 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.

Addressing the meeting at the I&PR Conference Hall in Aizawl, Gupta thanked political parties, election officials, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and Booth Level Agents (BLAs) for completing the enumeration phase successfully. She noted that among the 16 states and two Union Territories currently undertaking the exercise, Mizoram was the first to achieve complete digitisation of the enumeration process.

She said the publication of the draft electoral roll marked an important stage in the revision and announced that the claims and objections period would remain open from July 4 to August 4, during which eligible citizens could apply for inclusion, correction, transposition or deletion of names. She 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 scale of the exercise is perhaps best reflected in the experiences of Booth Level Officers(BLO) working on the ground.

Dilys Puii, a BLO incharge of the SIR process in Aizawl area told EastMojo, “It was not simply because of Mizoram’s relatively small population. More than anything, it was the strong spirit of cooperation. Ours is a close-knit society where communities know one another well. Compared with many other states, the collaboration between our communities, NGOs and Local Councils is exceptional.”

“Our Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) were extremely approachable and supportive. Whenever they felt someone was falling behind, they stepped in to help, whether it was during the day or at night. The exercise was truly a collective effort, with Local Councils, NGOs, Booth Level Agents (BLAs), EROs, AEROs and Booth Level Officers (BLOs) all working together,” she said.

Amawia Chawngthu, an assitant BLO also based in Aizawl area told EastMojo that the process involved repeated visits to households and significant manual assistance to residents unfamiliar with the forms.

“Many people found the forms difficult to understand. There were different forms that had to be filled, and in many cases we helped residents complete them. In my polling area alone, which has more than 1,000 households, we had to visit homes two or three times. We wanted every detail to be accurate, so although the work took time, we eventually digitised everything. Good cooperation from the public made the task possible,” he said.

The completion of the digitisation process has also been accompanied by questions raised by civil society organisations over the accuracy of the electoral rolls. On June 23, 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 said it had long campaigned against the inclusion of alleged foreign nationals in Mizoram’s voter lists and recalled assisting election officials during the intensive revision of electoral rolls in 1995. According to MZP, that exercise resulted in the removal of thousands of names that it alleged belonged to foreign nationals, including more than 4,000 entries from the Tlabung Assembly constituency.

MZP also referred to its 1996 march from Aizawl to Chawngte demanding the removal of alleged foreign nationals from electoral rolls, saying concerns over the integrity of the voter list have persisted for decades.

In the current revision, MZP said its examination of electoral data had raised questions over sharp increases in voter numbers in some Chakma-majority areas. Comparing electoral rolls from 2005 and 2024, it claimed to have identified unusually high voter growth, the appearance of 97 villages not listed in the 2005 rolls, entries without house numbers and cases where individuals were allegedly linked to both Indian and Bangladeshi citizenship.

The organisation urged the Election Commission of India to carry out an impartial verification process and submitted a formal complaint to the Chief Electoral Officer seeking detailed scrutiny of 195 villages it identified for further examination. MZP President H. Lalthianghlima later confirmed to EastMojo that the complaint had been submitted.

Questions over the electoral rolls also figured at an all-party meeting held on Monday, 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, where names appeared in the 2025 electoral roll but had no linkage with the 2005 Special Intensive Revision, should be removed if found to be ineligible. They also called for all entries considered suspicious to be examined carefully in coordination with civil society organisations, agreed to continue coordination among political parties during the revision process, and expressed support for the role being played by non-governmental organisations in monitoring the exercise.