SIR hit Manipur hills harder than its valley, finds study. 24% of all deletions in Churachandpur alone

A Sabar Institute analysis says 66.4% of voters removed from Manipur’s rolls came from 20 hill seats, with 4 Churachandpur constituencies accounting for nearly a quarter of all deletions.

Manipur has seen large-scale displacement since violence broke out in May 2023. 'A person living in a relief camp looks the same in this data as a person who chose to move', says the report. | ANI

New Delhi: In the conflict-ridden Manipur, the hills, inhabited predominantly by the tribal Kuki-Zo and Naga communities, saw more deletions than the valley during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI), a preliminary report by the Kolkata-based Sabar Institute has found.

Out of the 60 assembly seats in Manipur, 20 fall in the hill districts, and they account for 66.4 percent of all names struck off the electoral roll in the state, the report says. 

The finding is significant in the backdrop of the ethnic conflict that erupted in the state in May 2023 between the valley-dwelling Meitei community, mostly Hindus, and the hill-dwelling Kuki-Zo tribes, who are mostly Christians. 

Over 200 people have been killed in the violence since 2023 and more than 60,000 have been displaced. Since the beginning of this year, the conflict between the Metieis and Kukis has shifted to Kukis versus Nagas. 

“Counted booth by booth, 79 voters were removed from each hill booth against only 31 from each valley booth — about 2.5 times as many,” says the report.

Four seats in Churachandpur district, which was the epicentre of the clashes in the state, account for 24 out of every 100 names—nearly 1/4th of the total— removed from the roll in all of Manipur, the report adds. 

The four seats— Henglep (ST), Churachandpur (ST), Saikot (ST) and Singhat (ST)—saw a total deletions of 38,264 voters, with an average of 132.4 voters per booth— the highest per booth deletion in the state. 

However, Sabar Institute clarified that it does not say that anyone was removed on purpose, or that any community was targeted. 

It also clarified that since it does not have the voter list for each seat, it cannot say whether a hill voter was more likely to be removed than a valley voter. Therefore, it only looks at how many names were removed, and from how many booths. 

“Manipur has seen large-scale displacement since May 2023, and a person living in a relief camp looks the same in this data as a person who chose to move. What the report does show is where the removals are concentrated, and so where checking should start,” it adds. 

In Manipur, enumeration forms for SIR were provided for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) through the Nodal Officers of the District where they are presently residing. The final electoral roll in Manipur published last month saw the deletion of around 6.3 percent of voters in Manipur. 

While the state had 20,93,076 voters before the exercise began, 19,60,620 voters made it to the final electoral roll. The ASD—absent, shifted and dead—lists for the state had a total of 1.59 lakh people. 

The preliminary report of the Institute explains its grouping for the analysis. Thirty-nine seats sit on the valley floor in five districts—Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur, Thoubal and Kakching. Twenty seats sit in the 10 hill districts that ring the valley—Chandel, Churachandpur, Kamjong, Kangpokpi, Noney, Pherzawl, Senapati, Tamenglong, Tengnoupal and Ukhrul, it says. 

Nineteen of the 20 hill seats are reserved for the Scheduled tribes, while the 20th seat, Kangpokpi, is a general seat that happens to lie in a hill district. 

The report has left out the Jiribam seat in the far west on the Assam border, without grouping it with the hill or the valley seats. 

The reasons for removal

The report says that the ASD — absent, shifted, dead — lists put out by the Chief Electoral Officer, Manipur, for all 60 seats, as on 27 September 2026, showed 1.58 lakh names across 3,014 booths. The Institute downloaded the record of every booth for its analysis.

According to the report, the reasons for removal from the electoral roll also differ in the two regions of the state. While death of a voter was a prominent reason for deletion in the valley, shifting away was a prominent reason for deletion in the hill.

“Out of every 100 names removed in the valley, 43 were removed because the voter had died. In the hills that figure is only 19. Shifting away goes the other way: 50 in the hills against 36 in the valley. So does ‘could not be found’: 26 against 17,” it explains. 

As for gender-wise deletion, the report concludes that more women were removed in both regions of the state.

(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)