SIR: Voter roll purge casts shadow over Bengal poll as BJP defeats TMC

MP, May 6, 2026, Kolkata: In an election overshadowed by claims that lakhs of “dead”, duplicate and allegedly genuine voters were struck off in what critics dubbed a “factory of deletions”, the 2026 West Bengal Assembly polls saw an unprecedented purge of electoral rolls — a factor that coincided with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) storming to power and ending the 15-year rule of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) led by Mamata Banerjee.

More than 90 lakh electors were removed following a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to weed out dead and duplicate voters, triggering intense political sparring in the run-up to the polls, with the Trinamool alleging that genuine voters were also excluded.

Data suggests a strong correlation between higher deletions and BJP gains. Of the 147 constituencies where more than 25,000 names were deleted, the BJP won 95 seats, while the Trinamool secured 51 and the Congress one.

The trend persisted across other categories. In 67 constituencies with deletions between 15,000 and 25,000, the BJP won 47 seats to Trinamool’s 19. Of 62 seats with deletions between 5,000 and 15,000, the BJP won 50. All 13 constituencies with deletions below 5,000 were won by the BJP.

In Murshidabad district, which has 22 seats, 4.55 lakh voters were removed from the rolls. The Trinamool’s tally dropped to nine, compared to 20 in 2021, suggesting a split in minority votes and consolidation among Hindu voters in favour of the BJP.

In North 24-Parganas, where 3.25 lakh voters were deleted, the Trinamool’s seat share fell sharply from 28 of 33 seats in 2021 to eight in 2026.

However, among the 20 Assembly constituencies with the highest deletions, the Trinamool won 13 seats, the BJP six and the Congress one.

These include Samserganj (74,775 deletions, TMC), Lalgola (55,420, TMC), Bhagabangola (47,493, TMC), Raghunathganj (46,100, TMC), Metiaburz (39,579, TMC), Farakka (38,222, Congress), Suti (37,965, TMC), Mothabari (37,255, TMC), Jangipur (36,581, BJP), Ratua (35,573, BJP), Karandighi (31,562, BJP), Goalpokhar (31,384, TMC), Malatipur (29,489, TMC), Chopra (27,898, TMC), Sujapur (26,829, TMC), Ketugram (26,780, BJP), Rajarhat New Town (24,132, TMC), Basirhat Uttar (23,900, TMC), Manickchak (23,726, BJP) and Monteswar (23,423, BJP).

In this election, the BJP won 131 seats more than its tally of 77 in 2021, with only around a 4 per cent rise in vote share. The Trinamool secured 40.80 per cent of the vote, while the BJP received 45.84 per cent.

In 2021, the Trinamool had won 138 more seats than the BJP, with a vote share gap of about 10 percentage points.

Political analyst Yogendra Yadav described the variation as striking.

“A small swing can produce a huge change if seats are evenly distributed. However, in a state like Bengal, with distinct regions such as Malda, Murshidabad, North Bengal and Junglemahal, this is very interesting,” he said.

Yadav added that 4.3 per cent voter deletions under the SIR took place in the last round and did not rule out different electoral outcomes had these deletions not occurred.

The BJP’s vote increased by around 63 lakh compared to 2021, while the Trinamool’s vote declined by about 29 lakh.

From a pre-revision electorate of over 7.66 crore, a draft roll published in December had already removed 58.20 lakh names. The final list, published on February 28, raised deletions to 63.66 lakh. Subsequent adjudication cleared over 27.16 lakh more cases as “excludable”, taking total deletions to 90,83,345.

The Trinamool Congress alleged that the SIR process was targeted and biased, expressing concern over the potential erosion of its voter base.