'D-voter' Issue in Assam to Be Solved in 6 Months: Himanta Biswa Sarma

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said that the BJP-led Central and state governments will resolve doubtful voter (D-voter) issues faced by some people in the state within the next six months.

Sarma was in the state's Barak Valley region on Wednesday to extend support to two candidates of BJP -- Parimal Suklabaidya and Kripanath Mallah, as they submitted their nominations for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

In Assam, voters who have been denied the right to vote because of doubts about their citizenship, are known as D-voters.

As of February this year, 96,987 D-voters were registered in the state, according to the Assam government.

The Chief Minister said: "People residing in Karimganj and Hailakandi districts have been facing the D-voter issue for a long time. Now, the Central government has implemented the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the D-voter issue will be completely solved."

In response to a query during the Assam Assembly's budget session earlier this year, Sarma said that more than 1.59 lakh people had been identified as "foreigners" in the state and that over 96,000 voters had been tagged as D-voters.