Bengal SIR: Deletions exceed victory margins in 49 seats — 26 won by BJP, 21 TMC
There were 16 seats out of 293 where the difference between the deletions and the margins was over 10,000 votes each.
Of the 49 constituencies, 26 were won by the BJP, 21 by the TMC and two by the Congress.(PTI/File) The West Bengal Assembly elections results declared on Monday show that out of 293 seats, 49 had winning margins lower than the number of electors deleted after adjudication during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls that saw removal of over 90 lakh names in the state.
Of the 49 constituencies, 26 were won by the BJP, 21 by the TMC and two by the Congress.
The West Bengal Assembly has 294 seats of which results have been declared for 293; one seat (Falta) is scheduled for repolling on May 21.
The BJP, which won 207 seats, had 26 such constituencies where the number of deleted electors was higher than the victory margin. Twenty-five of those seats the BJP wrested from the Trinamool Congress, while it retained Darjeeling from the 2021 elections. On five seats, the number of electors deleted was over 10,000 more than the victory margin — Jangipur’s deletions were 26,039 more than the margin; Rajarhat New Town had 23,816 more deletions; Karandighi saw a difference of 11,693; Bhatar 10,953 and Raina 10,450.
Overall, the BJP’s average margin of victory in the 207 seats was 27,805, while the TMC, which won 80 seats, had an average margin of 29,095 votes. There were 16 seats out of 293 where the difference between the deletions and the margins was over 10,000 votes each.
For the TMC, 21 of its 80 seats had recorded more deletions in the adjudication phase of the SIR than the victory margins, ranging from 67,188 more in Samserganj to just 119 more in Kamarhati. The TMC won nine seats where the gap between deletions and margins was over 10,000 each.
The Congress and the Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) won two seats each, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and All-India Secular Front got one each. Both the Congress wins — Farakka and Raninagar — were in seats where the margin was lower than the number of deleted electors.
While over 90 lakh names were deleted from the electoral rolls in West Bengal during the SIR that started last year, 27.16 lakh of those deletions came during adjudication by judicial officers appointed on the order of the Supreme Court.
The SC, which is hearing a batch of petitions challenging the Election Commission’s SIR exercise, appointed 19 appellate tribunals in March this year. Over 34 lakh appeals against exclusions and inclusions during the adjudication are pending with the tribunals even now, with less than 2,000 appeals cleared before polling in the state.
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