Congress MLA alleges objections filed against 838 Van Gujjar voters during SIR in Uttrakhand's Haridwar

Key points

• “Objections have been raised against 838 Van Gujjars from my constituency, claiming they are not voters of this area,” Rawat…
• Van Gujjars are a traditionally pastoral community whose families live in forest areas adjoining Rajaji Tiger Reserve and in Shyampur…
• “There has been manipulation on a large scale, and the Congress will get to the bottom of it,” she said.
• Congress legislators had earlier questioned the transparency of the exercise during a meeting with district administration office-holders and staged a…

DEHRADUN: Congress MLA Anupama Rawat has alleged that objections were deliberately filed against 838 Van Gujjar electors in her Haridwar Rural Assembly constituency to remove their names during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

Rawat, who met members of the forest-dwelling pastoral community in Laldhang, alleged that unidentified persons were targeting her supporters and called the alleged irregularities a “major scam”.

“Objections have been raised against 838 Van Gujjars from my constituency, claiming they are not voters of this area,” Rawat told this newspaper. “Some people are deliberately creating these hurdles. This is a very sizeable scam.”

The revision exercise is under way across Haridwar district, with notices being issued to electors whose documents are unavailable or whose entries could not be mapped to existing records.

What happened

Rawat alleged that several Van Gujjars had received erroneous or unjustified notices. While some individuals appeared to have filed objections against their own entries, she also maintained that in some cases, a single person had objected to hundreds of names.

Rawat said affected families were struggling to obtain copies of family registers and other supporting documents before their hearing dates.

“If they do not receive the documents in time, they face the risk of deletion from the rolls,” she said, promising legal and administrative assistance.

The details

“Van Gujjars have lived in this constituency in large numbers for generations. We have shared each other’s struggles, and we will take their fight forward. We will not allow injustice to anyone during the SIR process,” the legislator said.

Congress legislators had earlier questioned the transparency of the exercise during a meeting with district administration office-holders and staged a protest at the Roshnabad headquarters. They alleged that supporters of opposition MLAs were being harassed under pressure from the ruling party to prevent their enrolment.

There was no immediate official response to Rawat’s allegations.

According to government sources, Van Gujjars are a traditionally pastoral community whose families live in forest areas adjoining Rajaji Tiger Reserve and in Shyampur and rehabilitation settlements such as Gaindikhatta and Pathri. Many migrate with their livestock to the upper Himalayan regions during summer and return in winter.

Why it matters

Officials stated the seasonal movement can make continuous residence challenging to reflect in government records, particularly when addresses, family registers and other documents are incomplete or do not match throughout databases.