Assam Pradesh Congress Committee President and Jorhat MP Gaurav Gogoi today said that the ongoing special revision of the electoral roll was being misused by the state government. Addressing the media at a press conference at the Congress Bhawan in Jorhat, Gogoi alleged that Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was interfering in the voter list process in a way that could affect the voting rights of the people of Assam.
Gogoi alleged that the Chief Minister was “trying to bring busloads and trainloads of BJP workers from outside the state” to include their names in the voter list of Assam. He said that such actions were aimed at reducing the voting strength of the Assamese people. According to him, the government wants to weaken the impact of genuine voters because it fears losing public support. Gogoi said the attempt to add names from other states was a way to “negate and dilute” the vote of the local population.
He urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to take the matter seriously ahead of the assembly elections. Gogoi also raised concerns about the credibility of the Election Commission and said that its reputation was slowly falling in the eyes of the public. He added that people expect the ECI to act firmly to protect the democratic process. 
During his address, Gogoi repeated Rahul Gandhi’s demand for machine-readable voter lists. He said that India is a global IT hub and that it makes little sense for the country to depend only on manual booth-level officers to prepare voter lists within a short time. He questioned why the Election Commission still does not use advanced and modern technology to prepare clean and transparent electoral rolls.
Gogoi asked the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, to explain why India has not yet adopted machine-readable voter lists. He said the country cannot afford repeated last-minute updates and alleged irregularities in the voter rolls. He demanded that the upcoming elections in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry must have machine-readable electoral rolls to avoid confusion and disputes.
He said that once voting is completed, it is difficult to detect or prove the inclusion of false names, and therefore the responsibility lies with the Election Commission to use reliable and updated systems in advance. Gogoi called this issue a matter of national importance and said that protecting the integrity of the vote is essential to protect the Constitution and democracy.
