West Bengal: 6.2 million names dropped from post-SIR voter list

NEw new delhi/ calcutta: The Election direction of republic of india (ECI) published the number one part of the final electoral roll for West Bengal on Friday, dropping 6.18 million names and keeping 70.46 million voters in the list after the Special Intensive Revision that lasted nearly four months.To be sure, another six million people were flagged under a controversial “logical discrepancy” category and their final status is currently being adjudicated by around 500 serving and former judicial officers.ECI published the final rolls after the Supreme Court ordered it to not withhold its release pending a final decision on the fate of those under scrutiny.West Bengal is the only state to have introduced such a provision in the SIR exercise, which started with Bihar in June 2025.ALSO READ | In a rare move, SC ropes in judges to fix Bengal voter list after ‘trust deficit’“The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal has referred nearly six million doubtful voter cases for adjudication following the SIR,” said a senior ECI official. The official added that these names will be eligible to vote only if “cleared by the appointed judges and reflected in the supplementary roll”.Murshidabad and Malda, both bordering and Muslim-majority districts, have the highest number of cases under adjudication by judicial officers. While there are 11,011,45 such cases in Murshidabad, Malda with 828,127 cases, comes second, as per the district-wise case list to judicial officers from the office of the West Bengal CEO.The Supreme Court directed ECI on February 24 to publish the final rolls for the state as per schedule on February 28, but to continue publishing supplementary rolls after these cases are adjudicated. As of now, there is no clarity on a timeline for the publication of these supplementary lists, which may complicate elections in the state.ALSO READ | When will West Bengal SIR 2026 final list be announced by Election Commission of India?If none of the pending cases of adjudication are decided in favour of the elector, the net pre-SIR to post-SIR deletion in West Bengal would stand at 15.9%, the highest among all states that have published their final rolls and only lower than the 16.9% deletion seen in the UT of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.If only half the cases of adjudication lead to deletion, the net deletion for the state would be 12%, only lower than the 13.4% figure for Gujarat among big states. If none of the cases lead to deletion, the 8.1% deletion in West Bengal would be sixth highest among the 11 states/UTs where SIR began on November 4 and has been completed.On October 27, just before the exercise began, the state had 76.64 million electors. The enumeration phase of the exercise –– all those who submitted enumeration forms were included in the rolls at this stage –– resulted in this count decreasing 7.6% to 70.82 million in the draft rolls. This number has decreased 0.5% further to 70.46 million in the final roll.The gender ratio remains unchanged at 956 women per 1,000 men, both in the draft and final rolls188,707 people were added to the draft roll through applications for inclusion and residence shifting, of which 182,036 inclusions were of the former category and 6,671 inclusions were of the latter. However, there were 546,053 deletions through Form-7, which is an application for objecting to someone’s proposed inclusion in the roll or for deleting the name of someone already on the rolls. This led to a net deletion of 357,346 electors between the draft and final rolls.The three districts with the highest deletions compared to the pre-SIR roll are Kolkata, Paschim Bardhaman, and Darjeeling, with 25.5%, 13.3%, and 11.2% deletions respectively.The districts with the lowest deletions are Purbo Medinipur, Bankura, and Coochbehar, with their electoral roll now 3.3%, 4%, and 4.5% lower than in the pre-SIR roll.Jorasanko and Chowranghee in Kolkata and Howrah Uttar in Howrah districts are still the ACs with the highest deletions, with 36.8%, 35.6%, and 28.5% deletions compared to the pre-SIR roll.The ACs with the lowest deletions are Sabang in Paschim Medinipur district, and Indus and Katulpur in Bankura district.They have seen a net deletion of 1.4%, 1.9%, and 2.2% respectively.Overall, there are 82 ACs that have seen a net increase in voter count between the draft and final roll. However, only 32 of these ACs have seen a growth of at least 0.5% and only 5 have seen a growth of at least 1%.These five ACs are Metiabruz and Jadavpur in South 24 Parganas district, Sabang in Paschim Medinipur, Bidhannagar in North 24 Parganas, and Kasba in South 24 Parganas. Their voter list has grown by 2.2%, 1.5%, 1.1%, 1.1%, and 1% respectively compared to the draft roll.The biggest contraction compared to the draft roll is in Dabgram-Fulbari AC of Jalpaiguri district, and Bagda and Jagatdal in North 24 Parganas district. These ACs have seen their roll contract by a further 5.7%, 4.6%, and 3.9% compared to the draft roll.ALSO READ | SIR enters final stage as hearings, uploading of documents ends in West Bengal“If a person’s name didn’t appear in the draft roll, he may still apply for enrolment after filling up Form-6. If a person’s name was there in the draft roll, but doesn’t appear in the final roll, he may appeal to the District Election Officer and then to the Chief Electoral Officer of the state,” a senior poll official said.The Trinamool Congress alleged the Bharatiya Janata Party was snatching people’s voting rights, even as the BJP said that the ruling party will not be able to cast false votes in the upcoming assembly polls.“The BJP gets pleasure by depriving Bengal, snatching people’s voting rights and stopping funds to the state. They won’t be able to hide their face in shame after the election results are announced,” TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said.Senior BJP leader and Union minister Sukanta Majumdar hit back.“Only time would say what effect the SIR would have on the elections. But one thing is certain: the TMC won’t be able to cast false votes in the name of 2.4 million dead voters. We have specific information that the TMC used to cast false votes against 60% of these deceased voters,” he said.