63.66 lakh names deleted in Bengal's post-SIR voter rolls so far, another 60 lakh remain under lens: What it means

AT to the lowest degree 63.66 lakh names, nearly 8.3% of the electorate, feature been deleted in w Bengal since the Special Intensive rescript (SIR) began in nov last year, bringing down the total number of voters in the state to over 7.04 crore ahead of the assembly elections due in April, EC officials said on Saturday.The post-SIR rolls, released on Saturday after a 116-day exercise that continues into a review stage now, show that more than 60 lakh electors have been placed in the "under adjudication" category. Their fate is to be decided by judicial officers in the coming weeks, a process that could further rejig constituency-level equations, news agency PTI reported.Earlier, draft rolls published on December 16 had already pared down the electorate from 7.66 crore to 7.08 crore, deleting over 58 lakh names on grounds of death, migration, duplication and untraceability.Following hearings, scrutiny and disposal of some claims and objections, another 5,46,053 deletions were recorded, now taking the total SIR-linked omissions to around 63.66 lakh.More than 1.82 lakh new electors were added, partially offsetting the deletions.Officials said the figures could still witness marginal changes as fresh inclusions and objections continue to be processed.Number still not finalEarlier in the day, a senior official of the Chief Electoral Officer's office told PTI that the EC was likely to delete nearly 8 lakh names over and above the 58 lakh removed in the draft rolls, taking the total SIR-linked deletions in the state to around 66 lakh.He had also said that the figures following the post-SIR publication may not be definitive, as further inclusions through Form-6 applications and fresh deletions based on Form-7 objections could alter the overall numbers.A large number of voters, 60.06 lakh, sit in the "under adjudication" category, largely due to what officials described as "logical discrepancies" in their enumeration forms. These names have been retained in the rolls pending adjudication.Of the 7.08 crore names that appeared in the draft rolls, around 6.4 crore have been marked as finally "approved" so far.The Election Commission maintained that the SIR — the first intensive statewide revision since 2002-03 — was a statutory “clean-up” exercise aimed at ensuring a "pure and error-free" roll ahead of a major election.Effect at granular levelBeyond the aggregate figures, district and constituency-level data underlined the scale of the shake-up.In Bhabanipur constituency, represented by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, 47,094 names have been struck off — 44,786 at the draft stage and another 2,324 in the final publication — while over 14,000 have been kept under adjudication.The total deletions in the constituency are roughly 11,000 fewer than Banerjee's victory margin of over 58,000 votes in the 2021 bypoll, PTI noted in its report.Nadia district, bordering Bangladesh and often central to debates over migration and citizenship of Muslims, witnessed around 2.73 lakh deletions. The electorate declined from 44.18 lakh at the start of the SIR to 41.45 lakh in the final rolls.Bankura saw a net reduction of about 1.18 lakh names, around 3%.Political flashpointThe scale of deletions and the large pool of voters under adjudication have turned the SIR into a political flashpoint in a state headed for another polarised contest.The TMC alleged that "harassment in the name of SIR" had reached extreme levels and warned of political and legal agitation.The party accused the Centre's ruling BJP of attempting to secure electoral gains through deletions, a charge the saffron camp rejected.The BJP maintained that parties must contest elections on the basis of the finalised rolls, and political outfits should not question a statutory revision exercise.Why the math mattersYet, beyond rhetoric lies the arithmetic of Bengal's tightly fought contests.In the 2021 assembly elections, several seats were decided by margins of a few thousand votes.In border districts such as Nadia and North 24 Parganas, and in tribal and urban belts, demographic shifts and migration patterns have historically influenced booth-level outcomes.A swing of even 2,000-3,000 voters in a closely fought constituency can alter the result.Political parties have intensified booth-level scrutiny, with cadres poring over printed rolls, cross-checking names and preparing appeals.The Supreme Court had to intervene and ask for judged, serving and retired, to aid the process.(Inputs by PTI, ANI)