Guwahati, Nov 27: Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president and Lok Sabha MP Gaurav Gogoi on Thursday launched a sharp attack on Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, alleging large-scale manipulation in the ongoing special revision of the electoral roll.
Addressing a press conference at Congress Bhawan in Jorhat, Gogoi accused the Chief Minister of “attempting to bring busloads and trainloads of BJP workers from other states” to have their names illegally added to Assam’s voter list.
“His sole purpose is to reduce the strength of the Assamese vote,” Gogoi alleged. “He wants to diminish the voting power of the people of Assam because he knows that if genuine Assamese voters cast their ballots freely, he will lose his chair.”
The Congress leader urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to intervene immediately, warning that the credibility of the panel “is diminishing day by day in the eyes of the public.”
Reiterating Rahul Gandhi’s long-standing demand, Gogoi pressed for the adoption of machine-readable voter lists, arguing that a global IT hub like India should not rely on manual booth-level compilation of rolls when advanced digital systems already exist.
“It is high time the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, explains why India still does not have machine-readable voter lists,” Gogoi said. “Why is the Election Commission shying away from technology?”
He demanded that the upcoming elections in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Puducherry must be conducted using machine-readable rolls to prevent last-minute alterations and alleged fraudulent entries.
Citing Rahul Gandhi, Gogoi noted that detecting false names becomes “extremely difficult” once voting is completed, making proactive safeguards essential.
Calling the issue a “matter of national importance,” he stressed that protecting the sanctity of the vote is fundamental to India’s constitutional democracy.
“It is not enough to merely read the oath inside the Central Hall; one must abide by it. The first responsibility is to protect the integrity of the vote,” he said.
