Representative image.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia, a term for the fear of the number 666, could have been a factor in keeping some people off the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in predominantly Christian Mizoram.
The SIR exercise began in the northeastern State on May 20 and concluded on Sunday (June 28, 2026). Ethel Rothangpuii, the State’s Joint Chief Electoral Officer, said 46,191 voters were deleted during the exercise.
She said 21,290 of these voters had died, 13,992 had shifted to other States or countries, 8,352 were found to be untraceable, and 2,245 had duplicate enrolments.
“Additionally, 312 people refused to enrol or re-enrol during the SIR exercise due to religious beliefs. They either had their names in the 2025 voters’ list or had relatives enrolled during the previous revision of the electoral rolls,” Ms. Rothangpuii said.
Officials attributed this refusal to Baptist or Presbyterian cults, members of which have certain rules or beliefs that prevent them from participating in any government exercises. Mizoram has adherents of more than 90 cults, whose rituals include raiding graves or sacrificing animals on altars.
One such cult is Zero Christianity, whose practitioners in the State’s Lunglei district refuse to send their children to school to deny Antichrist the opportunity of packing them off to hell. Another is the Chana Pawl (cult) of Aizawl district’s Baktawng village, which professes polygamy as a way of connecting with god.
“A majority of the 312 who declined to enrol or re-enrol follow cults, whose members shunned the Aadhaar enrolment exercise a decade ago because of their firm belief in the Bible’s Book of Revelation,” an election official said, requesting anonymity.
In Christianity, the devil or Antichrist is associated with ‘666’. The association comes from the Book of Revelation, which prophesies that a time will come when “no man will be able to buy or sell” except those marked by the name or the number of the beast (or devil): 666.
Some cult followers were reportedly paranoid about getting the three sixes in a sequence or anywhere in their voter ID.
After the deletions, the total number of voters in Mizoram stood at 8,28,887, representing 94.72% of more than 8.75 lakh voters recorded in 2025.
Officials said the draft rolls would be published on July 4, followed by a month-long window for filing claims and objections till August 4.
Published – June 30, 2026 10:36 am IST
