State Election Commission (SEC) has kept the publication of the electoral roll for the Village Committee elections in abeyance. The SEC had to hold the publication of the roll as it could not include all the eligible resettled Bru tribesmen in the list as per the direction of the High Court of Tripura.
A notification of the SEC on Saturday said, “In pursuance of Rule 14 and Rule 8 of the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Village Committee (Preparation of Electoral Roll) Rules, 1996, the programme earlier notified by the State Election Commission for publication of electoral roll of the Village Committees is hereby kept in abeyance and to be re-notified later by the Commission, as per Rules”.
The SEC said, although the commission undertook all efforts to include the names of all the rehabilitated Brus in the voters’ list for conducting the Village Council Polls, out of total 21,703 only 6,052 Brus could be enrolled in the electoral rolls.
In view of this and concerned order of the High Court of Tripura, the Commission felt that the preparation of electoral roll of Village Committees should be kept in abeyance.
The State Election Commission had notified the programme for draft and final publication of the Electoral Roll of Village Committees in consultation with the State Government and the Executive Committee of TTAADC, as per Rules on dated September 12 last.
Accordingly, the draft electoral roll of Village Committees was published on September 16 last inviting claims and objections, if any, for preparation of final roll which was notified to be published on Sep 30 last.
However, in view of another order passed by the High Court of Tripura on September 26 for the inclusion of the names of all the eligible persons belonging to Bru (Reang) Community in the Electoral Rolls of Village Committees, the State Election Commission had to defer the final publication of the Electoral Roll of Village Committees till October 15.
The State Election Commission had immediately requested the Chief Electoral Officer, Tripura to take necessary steps to include the eligible Bru-migrant voters in the State Assembly Electoral Rolls so that the Commission is in a position to include them in the Electoral Rolls of the Village Committees accordingly.
However, in spite of several efforts by the Chief Electoral Officer, Tripura, it is reported that only 6052 Nos Bru-migrants could be enrolled till date out of 21703 eligible voters. Therefore, a large number of eligible Bru-migrants voters are yet to be enrolled in the Electoral Rolls of State Assembly Constituencies.
It is also informed that the Election Commission of India has already announced the Special Summary Revision of Photo Electoral Rolls w.r.t 01.01.2023 as the qualifying date for which the schedule of publication of integrated Draft Rolls is on 09.11.2022 and Final Publication of Electoral Rolls is on 05.01.2023.
Since the electoral roll of Village Committees has been prepared by the State Election Commission based on the State Assembly Electoral Roll finally published by the Election Commission of India on 05.01.2022 with reference to 01.01.2022 as the qualifying date, the Rules do not permit for inclusion of names of any new voters including the Bru(Reang) migrants who have enrolled their names after 05.01.2022 and pending final publication of the integrated electoral roll by the Election Commission of India.
Therefore, it will be sensible to await the publication of the State Assembly Electoral Roll by the Election Commission of India through an ongoing revision programme and thereafter to treat the finally published electoral roll of assembly constituencies as the base electoral roll for preparation of electoral roll for the election of Village Committees.
