Residents Rally After Exclusion From Assam Council Voter Rolls

Guwahati: Voters in five Assam villages face a lockout. Residents of Dirai Alikinar, Dikcham Block, No. 2 Barbil, Longboi, and Powali Baghmara claim their names are missing from the electoral rolls for the September Sonowal Kachari Autonomous Council elections. Despite holding the necessary paperwork, nearly 60 to 70 families remain off the list.

These villages sit within the Tingkhang constituency of Dibrugarh district. Locals say they have been deprived of their voting rights. Members of the Sonowal Kachari community told reporters they had been "deprived of their voting rights ahead of the council elections."

The council serves as a statutory body to guard the social, cultural, and economic interests of the community. It also manages development programs in specific areas. Villagers argue the administration ignored their requests to grant these five locations the official status of notified villages. They have filed repeated representations over several years without success.

This failure to notify the villages hurts more than just the current vote. It threatens to cut off future generations from agricultural, educational, and economic benefits. The residents are now calling for help. They have reached out to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Tingkhang MLA Bimal Bora, and Council Chief Executive Member Tongkeshwar Sonowal. They want immediate intervention to update the rolls and notify their villages before the polls open.