As the voter lists for West Bengal’s two-phase assembly elections are now complete, figures from the Election Commission indicate that in 15% of the state’s 294 constituencies, more voters were removed during a Supreme Court-overseen verification process than the margins by which those seats were won in 2021.
Across the state, 44 assembly constituencies experienced voter deletions during this review that surpassed the previous election’s winning margins. These areas are roughly evenly split between the governing Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with TMC securing 24 of them and BJP taking 20.
The majority of these constituencies are located in Purba Bardhaman, Paschim Bardhaman, and Nadia districts, with five each, followed by four each in North 24 Parganas and Paschim Medinipur. Three each are in Cooch Behar, Dakshin Dinajpur, and Murshidabad, while Purba Medinipur and Howrah have two each.
Notable examples include Samserganj in Murshidabad, where 74,775 voters were removed, compared to TMC’s 2021 win by 26,111 votes. In Balarampur, Purulia, BJP’s narrow 273-vote victory in 2021 contrasts with 1,037 deletions now. Other affected areas include Matua-influenced seats like Gaighata in North 24 Parganas, won by BJP’s Subrata Thakur with 9,603 votes but seeing 19,638 removals, and Bagdah, where BJP’s 9,907-vote margin is exceeded by 10,017 deletions.
Sources within TMC mentioned an internal goal of capturing 250 seats, emphasizing close-margin constituencies with specialized election operations active since November.
Purba Medinipur featured tight races, such as the contest between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and former ally Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram, where Adhikari prevailed by 1,736 votes (excluding postal votes, which are exempt from the review). Post-verification, 3,461 voters there were deemed ineligible.
West Bengal stands out in the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls, which introduced new criteria for eligibility. This process involved 700 judicial officers appointed by the Supreme Court to assess 60.06 lakh voters.
According to the state Chief Electoral Officer’s data released Thursday, 27.16 lakh voters were ruled ineligible, barring them from voting in the April 23 and 29 elections.
Although the SIR occurred in 13 states and union territories since last June, only West Bengal had micro-observers to oversee Electoral Registration Officers, and solely there did the court mandate judicial reviews.
Unlike standard annual revisions, the SIR rebuilt voter lists from scratch, requiring all registered individuals to submit forms and, in some cases, proof of eligibility like citizenship documents.
The SIR began in West Bengal and 11 other regions in October 2023, resulting in an 11.85% reduction in the electorate, from 7.66 crore to 6.77 crore after the process.
Challenges to the SIR’s implementation are before the Supreme Court, which has reserved judgment on one case, with others ongoing. On Friday, the court scheduled an April 13 hearing for a new petition contesting the Election Commission’s decision to finalize voter rolls before the elections.
