Photo Courtesy: India Today Group
Aizawl: The Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) is fighting back. On Tuesday, July 14, the student group challenged Chief Electoral Officer Garima Gupta over voter growth in southern Mizoram. Gupta previously insisted the Special Intensive Revision 2026 revealed no abnormal trends. The students disagree.
Analysis of draft rolls published July 4 shows massive spikes in Chakma-majority villages. Growth rates hit 50 to 376 percent. Mizo-majority villages in the same area saw only 10 to 20 percent increases. Take Sumasumi village in Lunglei district: voters jumped from 52 in 2005 to 248 today. That is a 376.92 percent hike.
Seven Chakma-majority villages saw growth top 200 percent. Another 16 villages rose by over 100 percent. Across 95 villages surveyed, more than 30 showed increases exceeding 50 percent. The MZP blames poor oversight during the May 30 to June 28 revision period. They want Gupta to step in and fix the mapping errors in five Assembly constituencies before the August 4 deadline.
Gupta remains firm. She told reporters recently, "We do not see any case of a foreign national being entered in the electoral roll. As per the draft roll, there is no large increase or abnormal growth in voter numbers."
Political parties joined the fray on Tuesday. They met in Aizawl and passed a resolution demanding the removal of names missing links to the 2005 records. Any suspicious entry must face a deep audit involving civil society groups.
The CEO noted that 46,163 voters from the 2025 list, or 5.28 percent, were not reached. Of those, 21,295 are dead. Another 13,978 moved away. Officials labeled 8,333 as untraceable and found 2,248 already registered elsewhere. Religious objections blocked 309 enrollments. Total electors now sit at 828,906, including 429,881 women.
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