(AICC observer Banna Gupta urges Nagas to guard their voting rights; DCC appeals to GBs, Council Chairmen to back booth level agents)

The Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) today flagged what it called a worrying deletion of voters from the electoral rolls in Dimapur and Ghaspani during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), fearing that genuine voters have been wiped from the list.

The concern was raised at a press conference held by the Dimapur District Congress Committee (DCC) at Congress Bhawan, Dimapur, along with Banna Gupta, AICC observer for SIR in Nagaland, who is from Jharkhand.

DCC president Kutoho Chishi said the number of voters in Dimapur I, II and III stood at 1,25,703 before the SIR and dropped to 89,074 after it, a deletion of 36,629. In Ghaspani, the figure fell from 1,09,941 to 81,330, which he put at a deletion of 28,626 for Ghaspani I and II.

"With this matter, I like to express to the Naga people who have their voting rights, what has been happening in other states, it should not happen in Dimapur or Nagaland itself," Chishi said. He also appealed to GBs and Council Chairmen to support booth level agents during the SIR process.

Gupta said genuine voters' names should not be deleted from the rolls. He accused the BJP of breaking the country's economic base and the structure of communal harmony since coming to power at the Centre.

"First, they made governments using EVMs. And even after that, when they started losing in certain states, they started using the SIR. It is a very calculated move that will contribute to the destruction of this democracy," he stated.

He maintained that the issue is not just the Congress party's agenda but that of every Indian citizen who wants democracy to remain, and urged the people of Nagaland to be concerned about their voting rights and to understand them.

The Congress alleged that more than 13 crore 13 lakh "genuine voting rights" have been erased across the country. 

Party leader Rahul Gandhi will stage a dharna at Ramlila Maidan on November 1.