Of 27.16 lakh Bengal voters deleted after adjudication, doors shut for more than half
14,28,771 will not be able to vote at least this time as the electoral rolls for the first phase of polling are frozen
People, whose names were deleted from voters' lists in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound West Bengal, queue up to present their cases before judicial officers, ahead of the state Assembly elections, at Krishnanagar, in Nadia district, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (PTI Photo) Of the 27,16,393 voters whose names have been deleted from election rolls after adjudication, 14,28,771 or 52.6%, will not be able to cast their ballot this time as the voter list for the first phase of West Bengal Assembly polls has been frozen.
The remaining 12,87,622 (47.4%) still have a chance to be included in voter rolls if tribunals clear their names before the voter list for the second phase is frozen on April 9.
The clock, however, is ticking as the tribunals, set up by the Calcutta High Court under the supervision of the Supreme Court, are yet to start functioning.
In the first phase, on April 23, 152 Assembly constituencies out of 294 will be voting. The rest of the 142 seats will be voting on April 29.
The first phase includes districts such as Murshidabad, Malda, Uttar Dinajpur and Coochbehar with a relatively high percentage of deletions after adjudication (41.33%, 28.9%, 36.84% and 50.7%, respectively), as well as Purulia, Bankura and Jhargram where deletion proportion is low (17.7%, 16.7% and 18.55%, respectively).
On Monday midnight, the Election Commission of India released its final Supplementary List after the adjudication process began a month ago. The total number of voters in Bengal has fallen to 6.77 crore from 7.66 crore at the start of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. In other words, 89 lakh people have been removed from voter lists, a fall of 11.62%.
The adjudication was carried out by 705 judicial officers under the supervision of the Supreme Court. On Monday, the apex court did not accept a plea to extend the time before electoral lists were frozen.
The SIR started on October 27 last year, and after the final list was published on February 28, the total number of voters had fallen to 7.04 crore, including 60.06 lakh electors whose names were flagged for review by Supreme Court-appointed judicial officers.
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