In 44 Bengal seats, deleted voters outnumber 2021 winning margins

In the state, 44 Assembly constituencies have seen a higher deletion of electors at the adjudication phase compared to the winning margins last time. These seats are almost equitably divided between the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the ruling party in the state, and the BJP, with the former winning 24 of these seats and the latter 20.

Most of these seats are in Purba Bardhaman, Paschim Bardhaman, and Nadia districts at five each, followed by four each in North 24 Parganas and Paschim Medinipur, three each in the districts of Cooch Behar, Dakshin Dinajpur, and Murshidabad, and two each in Purba Medinipur and Howrah.

Among these constituencies is Samserganj in Murshidabad district where the 74,775 voters have been deleted, but which the TMC won last time by 26,111 votes. In contrast, in Purulia’s Balarampur, where the BJP’s victory margin was 273 in 2021, 1,037 voters have been deleted. Some of the other such constituencies are the Matua-dominated seats of Gaighata in North 24 Parganas that the BJP’s Subrata Thakur won by 9,603 votes last time, but where 19, 638 voters have been deleted, and Bagdah. The BJP had won that too in 2021 with 9,907 votes and this time, 10,017 voters have been found not eligible after the adjudication process.

TMC insiders said the party had set an internal target of winning 250 seats, with “a special focus” on constituencies with low margins where dedicated war rooms for the elections have been operational since last November.

Purba Medinipur district saw a significant low-margin battle — including the one between Chief Minister and TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee and her former close aide Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram, which Adhikari won by 1,736 votes, excluding the postal ballots in their respective favour. Postal ballots are not subject to the SIR. After adjudication, 3,461 voters in the constituency were found not eligible.

Bengal an exception

The EC’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, in which a new set of rules and requirements were implemented for electors to fulfil to remain on the rolls, also saw the appointment of 700 judicial officers on the order of the Supreme Court to decide on the eligibility of 60.06 lakh electors.

As per the list after adjudication shared by the Bengal Chief Electoral Officer’s office on Thursday, a total of 27.16 lakh electors have been found “not eligible”, meaning they won’t be able to vote in the April 23 and April 29 polls.

While the EC has conducted the SIR in 13 states/UTs, including West Bengal, since June last year, it deployed micro-observers to assist and review the work of the statutory authority, the Electoral Registration Officers, only in Bengal.

The court, too, ordered judicial officers to decide on the eligibility of electors in Bengal alone.

The SIR, unlike the usual annual Special Summary Revision, involved the preparation of the electoral rolls afresh, with all registered electors required to submit enumeration forms to remain on the rolls and certain categories of electors required to submit documents to prove their eligibility, including citizenship.

The SIR was started in Bengal, along with 11 other states/UTs, in October 2025, leading to the overall deletion of 11.63% of electors, taking the total electorate from 7.66 crore pre-SIR to 6.77 crore after SIR and adjudication.

The EC’s decision to conduct the SIR and the process followed have been challenged in the Supreme Court, which has reserved its judgment on the matter. Other petitions regarding the conduct of the SIR in Bengal are still being heard. On Friday, the court agreed to hear on April 13 a fresh plea along with pending ones, challenging the freezing of electoral rolls by the EC ahead of the polls in Bengal.