Kolkata, February 28 – The Election Commission has published the post-SIR electoral rolls for West Bengal, showing that nearly 66 lakh names are likely to be deleted, having begun the process in November last year. Another 60 lakh names are currently under review. This marks a significant change in the voter list ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in April.
The phased publication of the final, but incomplete, rolls marked the end of an 116-day statewide exercise, which began on November 4, when election officials started distributing enumeration forms. The draft rolls published on December 16 had already reduced the electorate from 7.66 crore to 7.08 crore, deleting over 58 lakh names due to reasons such as death, migration, duplication, and untraceability.
With nearly eight lakh additional deletions recorded after hearings and scrutiny, the total number of deletions linked to the SIR process has now reached around 66 lakh, according to senior officials.
The figure could still change as fresh inclusions under Form 6 and objections under Form 7 are processed, and supplementary rolls are issued.
Approximately 60.06 lakh voters have been categorized as "under adjudication," primarily due to "logical discrepancies" in their forms. Their fate will be decided by judicial officers in the coming weeks, potentially further altering the electoral arithmetic.
The scale of deletions and the large number of names under adjudication have made the SIR a key political issue.
Data from different districts highlighted the extent of the changes. In Nadia, bordering Bangladesh, around 2.73 lakh names have been deleted, reducing the electorate from 44.18 lakh at the start of the process to 41.45 lakh in the final roll. The electorate had previously been 42,02,261 in the draft rolls.
Bankura saw a net reduction of about 1.18 lakh names. From an initial 30,33,830 voters in November, the draft rolls saw the number drop to 29,01,09.
After further scrutiny, around 4,000 more deletions were recorded, partially offset by fresh inclusions, leaving the final figure at around 29.15 lakh.
In north Kolkata, comprising seven assembly constituencies currently held by the TMC, around 4.07 lakh names were removed during the SIR process, with 3.9 lakh being removed in the draft stage and another 17,000 in the final list. The exact number of fresh additions in this zone is yet to be officially ascertained.
Alipurduar in north Bengal recorded 1,02,835 deletions, with 11,96,651 names featuring in the final rolls.
The electoral rolls of Hooghly also witnessed changes, with the number of voters dropping from 47,75,099 at the beginning of the process to 44,40,293 now, representing a total deletion of 3,34,806 names since November. Additionally, 1,73,064 voters remain under adjudication, according to district administration sources.
The electorate in the district had previously been 44,56,224 in the draft rolls.
Updated rolls were displayed at SDO and BDO offices across districts, attracting long queues of anxious residents checking to see if their names were marked as "approved," "deleted," or placed under "consideration." Soft copies were yet to appear on the designated EC portals and mobile applications as of the latest reports.
The commission maintains that the SIR, the first intensive statewide roll revision since 2002, is a statutory cleanup aimed at ensuring a "pure and error-free" roll ahead of a major election. Of the 7.08 crore electors appearing in the draft rolls, around 6.4 crore have been marked as "approved" so far.
Politically, the publication of the rolls has also heightened tensions.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had last week alleged that authorities were "quietly" removing more names under the label of "logical discrepancies" after initially deleting 58 lakh names. She claimed the figure could reach 80 lakh, but asserted that "another 50 lakh names cannot be deleted."
Reacting to the final publication, TMC leader Tanmay Ghosh alleged that "harassment in the name of SIR and hostility towards Bengalis has reached an extreme."
He warned of political and legal action if any valid voter's name is struck off, and accused the BJP of dreaming of victory through deletions, a strategy he said would fail.
BJP leader Jagannath Chattopadhyay, however, said it was not the job of political parties to assess who gained or lost from the roll publication, but to fight the election on the basis of the published list.
Beyond the rhetoric lies the hard arithmetic of West Bengal's closely fought elections.
In 2021, several assembly seats were decided by margins of a few thousand votes. In districts such as Nadia and North 24 Parganas, border dynamics, migration patterns, and demographic shifts have historically influenced booth-level outcomes. A deletion or inclusion swing of even 2,000-3,000 voters in a tightly contested constituency can tilt the balance.
Political parties have already intensified booth-level scrutiny, with cadre pouring over printed lists, cross-checking names, and preparing appeals.
For the TMC, which swept north Kolkata in the last assembly election, the 4 lakh-plus deletions in the zone are being viewed through the prism of urban turnout patterns. For the BJP, which has made gains in border and tribal belts in recent years, the focus is on how adjudication of the 60 lakh pending cases could reshape battleground districts.