Mizoram election officials to meet Tripura counterparts on Bru voters imbroglio

Mizoram election officials are likely to hold a meeting with their Tripura counterparts over Bru voters in April.

Aizawl (Mizoram): Mizoram election officials would hold meeting with their Tripura counterparts to expedite the deletion of names of Mizoram Bru voters, who have permanently settled in the neighbouring state, 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 Bru voter names from Mizoram electoral roll.

"We are planning to go to Tripura and hold meeting with Tripura election officials over Bru voters at the earliest likely in April. We will inform our proposed visit to the neighbouring state this week," Pachuau told PTI. He said that the Mizoram government is making 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 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 district concerned. We will take list of the Bru voters in 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 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 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 Mizoram voter list, he added.

Fearing ethnic tension triggered by the murder a Mizo forest official by Bru militants in 1997, thousands of Brus had fled to Tripura after the killing. Since then they have been living in transit camps in Tripura. Although the Centre and governments of Mizoram and Tripura made at least nine attempts to repatriate the Bru tribals from Tripura between 2009 and 2019, only a few had returned to Mizoram during the exercise. On January 16, 2020 the Centre, governments of Mizoram and Tripura and representatives of several Bru organisations had signed an agreement, according to which over 35,000 displaced Bru tribals, who were reluctant to return to Mizoram during repatriation, were allowed to re-settle permanently in Tripura. (PTI)