Dhubri
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Political history
High turnout in elections, 2019, 2024
Sukrita Baruah, May 10, 2024: The Indian Express
Phase 3, which saw four Assam constituencies go to polls on May 7, saw an even higher turnout of 85.45% (when compared to Phases 1 and 2 in Assam). Nonetheless, Dhubri’s turnout was still far ahead of the rest of Assam and India, with 92.08% of its 26.6 lakh strong voters excercising their franchise. Among Dhubri’s 11 assembly segments, two — Gauripur and Birsing-Jarua — saw turn-outs of a little over 94%.
In fact, Dhubri has consistently registered significantly above-average voter turnout in elections.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Dhubri registered a turnout of 90.66%, even as the countrywide turnout stood at 67.4%. This was the highest among all 543 of India’s Lok Sabha constituencies. In 2014, Dhubri registered a turnout of 88.49%, more than 22 percentage points higher than the national average of 66.4%.
This happens despite the fact that a large proportion of Dhubri’s electorate comprises migrant workers who are spread across Assam and the rest of India.
Issue of Indian citizenship in Dhubri
Dhubri shares a 141.9 km border with Bangladesh, and more than 80% of Dhubri’s voters are Muslims of Bengali origin. Political observers attribute the constituency’s extraordinarily high voter turnouts to anxieties surrounding the citizenship status of voters.
In February, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, submitted in the state Assembly that there were 96,987 D-Voters (Doubtful Voters) in the state. D-voters are a category of voters in Assam whose citizenship is doubtful or in dispute. This category was introduced in 1997 when the Election Commission of India was revising the voters’ list in the state.
Till December 2023, more than 2.44 lakh D-Voter cases had already been referred to Foreigners Tribunals in Assam, to rule on the citizenship of the person concerned.
Of these, the districts of Barpeta (sizable belts of which have now been added to the Dhubri Lok Sabha constituency), and Dhubri account for the highest numbers of D-Voters, at 31,345 and 27,858 respectively. Currently, of all the cases from Dhubri district referred to the Tribunal, 4,290 people have been declared foreigners, while 11,999 cases are still pending.
The National Register of Citizens (NRC) process, which has been in limbo since 2019, further added to citizenship anxieties.
Voting to keep names on electoral rolls
“People from as far away as Kerala catch trains to come and vote, not because they are extremely concerned voters voting for or against any issues but because they are afraid that if they don’t vote, their names will be deleted from the electoral roll,” Masud Zaman, a Dhubri-based lawyer, told The Indian Express.
This sentiment was echoed by Forhad Bhuyan, a journalist from a part of Barpeta that has now been made part of the Dhubri Lok Sabha constituency.
“The Bengali-speaking Muslims, who are in majority here, fear that if they don’t vote, their names will be removed from the electoral roll. It is a misconception but a rampant one, particularly among those who are less educated. It is mostly prompted by fear,” he said.
“People whose citizenship is or can be put under the scanner meticulously maintain all their records, and casting a vote is also a part of maintaining their record,” Bhuyan said.
Electoral rolls are at the core of records of citizenship. In creating the NRC of 2019, the basic ‘Legacy Data’ — through which people could prove that they or their ancestors were residing in Assam before March 24, 1971 — were the 1951 NRC and electoral rolls up to that date.
