The Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) trimmed West Bengal’s voter list by 91 lakh names, cutting the electorate from 7.6 crore to 6.7 crore ahead of the 2026 assembly polls.
Earlier iterations of the purge removed 63 lakh entries, with an additional 27 lakh struck after judicial adjudication, according to Chief Electoral Officer data filed with NewsOnAir in April.
The Supreme Court has now asked the Commission to respond to a wave of voter deletions that the court described as "machine‑generated," prompting a review that could affect up to 38.20 lakh appeal cases still pending before 19 tribunals.
The 91 lakh deletions exceed the BJP‑TMC victory margin of 33.53 lakh votes, a gap that has raised accusations that the purge handed the BJP an illegal advantage. In minority‑heavy districts such as Murshidabad, North 24 Parganas and Malda, 4.55 lakh, 3.25 lakh and 2.3 lakh names were removed respectively. TMC spokesperson Anirban Banerjee said the purge was engineered to hand the BJP an "undue and illegal advantage." A 45‑year‑old migrant worker from Murshidabad said he had not voted in the last election because his name had been struck.
In an affidavit, the Commission defended the SIR as a constitutional duty under Article 324, arguing no voter was removed without due procedure. The Supreme Court is now considering a request to double the number of adjudication tribunals from 19 to 42 to clear the backlog, a move that could take more than a decade to resolve and leave voters disenfranchised for future elections.