• Source:JND
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Bengal Election 2026: The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) conducted by the Election Commission of India took centre stage in the election-bound West Bengal after the poll body announced the deletion of around 91 lakh names (12%) from the electoral rolls. Bengal SIR became the biggest poll issue. As the voting dates - April 23 and 29 - are approaching, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Left and Congress are raising the issue as per their own convenience. While Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led TMC opened front against the EC, the BJP defended the SIR, calling it a move to remove infiltrators from the electoral roll.

Why Is TMC Opposing SIR?

Mamata, addressing a rally in Chakdaha in Nadia district -- a Matua heartland where the voter list revisions have caused unease, alleged that the deletions were neither random nor administrative, but a deliberate attempt to target social groups - Matuas and minorities - seen as politically inconvenient to the BJP.

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"Why this discrimination? You are excluding Matuas, Rajbanshis and minorities. Do you think people do not understand this?" Banerjee said, accusing the Centre of using the SIR to redraw Bengal's political map. In percentage terms, Nadia -- which has a substantial Matua population -- recorded the maximum deletions, with 77.86 per cent of the adjudication cases ending in removal. North 24 Parganas, another Matua-heavy district, saw 55.08 per cent of such cases deleted.

What Is BJP's Stand On SIR?

Senir Suvendu Adhikari, who is contesting against Mamata in the Bhabanipur, defended the SIR, saying the exercise had merely exposed Muslim infiltrators protected by the ruling TMC. Adhikari said the TMC was worried because the SIR had begun to expose what he described as its "infiltrator vote bank".

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The BJP leader's remarks reflected the party's larger attempt to frame the election not as a contest over deleted names, but as a battle over identity, citizenship and illegal immigration. If Mamata is trying to turn the SIR into a narrative of exclusion and discrimination, the BJP is equally determined to project it as an overdue cleansing exercise.

Large Number Deletion In TMC's Strongholds

The highest number of names placed under adjudication had earlier come from minority-dominated Murshidabad, followed by Malda, South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas. After judicial scrutiny, more than 27 lakh of the 60 lakh adjudication cases were deleted. But while the minority-dominated districts accounted for large numbers in absolute terms, the steepest percentage deletions came from Nadia, Hooghly and North 24 Parganas -- districts where Matua and refugee politics intersect sharply with the BJP-TMC battle.

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TMC Continues Legal Battle On SIR

On the legal front, the Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on April 13 a fresh plea along with pending ones challenging the freezing of electoral rolls by the Election Commission ahead of the polls in West Bengal. The poll panel has frozen and finalised the electoral rolls on April 9 for the assembly seats which are going to polls in the first stage.

Women Voters Issue

Women in West Bengal is considered the largest vote bank of Mamata's party, crediting welfare policies. Recently, Union Law and Justice Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal told Parliament that the women-to-men ratio among Bengal’s voters had fallen to 964 against 1000 men, a first drop in 14 years. Before the SIR, the data showed 969 women for every 1,000 men. The decline in women voters means a loss for the ruling party.

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SIR Status In Other Poll-States

  • Tamil Nadu lost nearly 7o lakh voters after the SIR.
  • Kerala saw the deletion of 53,229 names.
  • Puducherry witnessed the removal of around 1.03 lakh electors
  • Assam was exempted from the SIR because the state recently completed a rigorous National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise.

(With Agencies inputs)

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