Mizoram poll officials to visit Tripura over Bru migrants names deletion

Aizawl: Mizoram election officials would hold a meeting with their Tripura counterparts likely in April to expedite the deletion of names of Mizoram Bru voters, who have permanently settled in the neighbouring state, from the state voters’ list, a senior election official said on Sunday.

Mizoram Joint Chief Electoral Officer David Liansanglura Pachau said that they are planning to travel to Tripura in April to hold talks with Tripura election officials to sort out the Bru voters imbroglio and ensure speedy deletion of the Bru voter names from the Mizoram electoral roll.

“We are planning to go to Tripura and hold a meeting with Tripura election officials over Bru voters at the earliest likely in April. We will communicate and inform our proposed visit to the neighbouring state this week,” Pachuau said. 

He said that the Mizoram government is making massive efforts to delete names of Bru voters enrolled in the state voters’ list before the state assembly polls due later this year.

The Bru voters have settled permanently in Tripura.

Pachuau, who is taking charge as Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), said that the process of deletion is moving at a snail’s pace as many Bru voters had lost their Mizoram voter identity cards and no longer remember which constituencies they belonged to. 

“We are planning to go with election officers of the district concerned. We will take a list of the Bru voters in the Mizoram electoral roll and discuss the matter with Tripura officials to expedite the deletion process,” he said.

According to Pachuau, the election department has so far deleted the names of 4,318 Bru voters, who have settled permanently in neighbouring Tripura, from the state voters list.

The Bru voters’ names were deleted based on corresponding deletion requests and scanned forms received from the Tripura state election commission, he said.

The Bru voters hailed from nine assembly constituencies in three districts- Lunglei, Kolasib and Mamit, he said.

Names of 6,084 Bru voters are yet to be deleted from the Mizoram voter list, he added. 

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