Tripura: Around 3,500 internally displaced Brus request ECI not to delete their names from Mizoram voter list

MBDPF general secretary Bruno Msha said that many names of Bru IDPs are still not listed in the Tripura electoral roll

Around 3,500 internally displaced Brus settled in Tripura have requested the Election Commission of India not to delete their names from Mizoram voter lists until the forthcoming Mizoram assembly elections in the state scheduled to be held in November this year.

Bruno Msha, the general secretary of Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF) on behalf of Bru IDPs living in relief camps of Tripura, has written to the ECI requesting it to address the matter at the earliest.

The Election Commission is working to delete all names of Bru IDs before the general assembly election as per the petition submitted to Madhup Vyas, Chief Electoral Officer of Mizoram by the Young Mizo Association (YMA) to do the same before June 15, 2023.

In this connection, Bruno Msha drew attention of ECI to the fact that many names of Bru IDPs are still not listed in the Tripura electoral roll.

“I would like to bring to your kind notice that many names of Bru IDPs are not yet registered in the Electoral roll of Tripura since 651 families which is under the total 6959 families as per Quadripartite Agreement signed on 16-January-2020 and approximately 478 families who have been left out during the population census conducted by the Government of Tripura in June-August-2020 but who are having the population census slip as conducted the population census by Government of Mizoram in 2016 & 2019,” he said.

MBDPF general secretary said that their condition is still uncertain whether to settle in Tripura or in Mizoram as the Quadrilateral Agreement of 2020 gave the option to the Bru families to repatriate to Mizoram as per the agreement of 3 July, 2018.

“I would like to request your honour to kindly keep the names of Bru IDPs in the Electoral Rolls of Mizoram till the ensuing general assembly election to be held in November to exercise their universal adult franchise which is a vital importance and mandatory for the citizen of India”, he added.

Msha said that amongst the Bru voters who have chosen to settle in Tripura but still not enrolled in the Tripura electoral rolls will be around 3,500.

Meanwhile, all the 11,997 Bru voters’ names, who had settled permanently in Tripura have been deleted by Mizoram election officials, sources in the state election department said.

However, the real figures will only be known in the final publication of the state electoral roll on October 4 as the revision of electoral roll is still a continuous process, a senior election department official said.

Deletion of Bru voters could only be undertaken after a quadrilateral agreement was signed between the Ministry of Home Affairs, Mizoram and Tripura state governments and different Bru bodies in the relief camps on January16, 2020 in which it was agreed that the Bru community in Tripura relief camps who did not like to return to Mizoram are allowed to settle permanently in Tripura.

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