New Delhi, July 31: Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat has stated that "only Indian citizens will be eligible to vote." It means that those whose names will not figure in the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) of Assam list, will not be able to cast their votes in any election in India. The final NRC Assam list will be out in December 2018 and the final electoral rolls will be prepared on the basis of that by January 2019.

"Have asked state(Assam) chief electoral officers to coordinate with state NRC coordinators to prepare a roadmap so that summary revision of electoral rolls is completed by 4th January 2019. We don't want eligible voters being left out of electoral roll," Rawat said as quoted by ANI.

The NRC of Assam final draft was released on Monday, July 30. Out of 3.29 crore people, 2.89 crore have been found eligible to be included. Names of 40,05,007 people haven't been mentioned in the list. Among those whose names have not been mentioned in the draft are BJP MLA Ramakant Deori, Retired Army man Mohd Azmal Hoque and AIUDF MLA Ananta Kumar Malo. Many others have also pointed out how some members of the same family have been mentioned in the draft while others fail to find their names.

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Those whose names are missing will now have to file an objection application starting August 30. After a review of the objection applications, the NRC Assam final list is likely to be out by December 31, 2018.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Tuesday told the government that no authority will take any coercive action against those who have been left in the list. "What has been published is a complete draft NRC. It can't be the basis for any action by any authority," a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and R F Nariman said.

The apex court also asked the government to place the standard operating procedure to deal with claims of those excluded from Assam's NRC before it on August 16. "The process (of filing of an objection by those whose names are not in the final draft of NRC) should be fair. The standard operating procedure should be applied," the bench said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 31, 2018 05:42 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).