Netas on edge in low-margin seats

Kolkata: The electoral roll deletions following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) surpassed the narrow victory margins in at least 35 assembly seats in Bengal, pushing sitting MLAs to the edge. In the 2021 Bengal Assembly polls, 35 seats were decided by fewer than 5,000 votes. Of these, 22 were won by the BJP and the rest by the Trinamool Congress.Election Commission (EC) data now reveals that voter deletions in several of these constituencies far exceed their 2021 winning margins. Seven of these seats were decided by fewer than 1,000 votes, leaving MLAs in these razor-thin margin constituencies in a precarious position.
An election expert said: "Across these 35 constituencies, victory margins were largely under 2% of the votes polled. The average electorate size ranged from 2 to 2.5 lakh, with an average turnout in 2021 of approximately 80%."He added: "Most of these 35 seats are clustered in north Bengal, the Junglemahal belt, and industrial zones in West Burdwan — areas that witnessed high-polarity contests in 2021. Based on 2021 turnout data, a 1% swing in vote share could flip at least 15 of these seats, while a 2% shift could alter over 20. Consequently, the scale of deletions in these closely fought segments may significantly impact the 2026 results."In Dinhata, the original victory margin was a mere 57 votes when Nisith Pramanik (BJP) defeated Udayan Guha (TMC). After Pramanik resigned his seat, Guha won the subsequent bypoll by a thumping majority to become the north bengal development minister. Dinhata saw 316 recent deletions and 15,460 overall, bringing its total to 2.9 lakh voters.Similarly, in Jalpaiguri, Pradip Kumar Barma (TMC) won by 941 votes. The constituency saw 3,739 recent deletions and 18,387 overall, with a current total voter count of 2.6 lakh. In Purulia's Balarampur, won by Baneswar Mahato (BJP) by only 423 votes, 730 voters were recently deleted, contributing to a total of 19,526 deletions; the total voter count now stands at 2.3 lakh.In Dantan, TMC MLA Bikram Chandra Pradhan's margin of 623 votes is outweighed by 8,609 total deletions, leaving the seat with 2.3 lakh voters. Conversely, TMC MLA and ex-minister Saumen Mahapatra, who won Tamluk by 793 votes, saw 8,434 total deletions out of a total 2.7 lakh voters.In Ghatal, BJP MLA Sital Kapat — who won by 966 votes — faces a challenge as 11,452 voters have been marked ‘deleted'. This comes as the state's Ghatal Master Plan looms over the local political narrative. The seat has 2.7 lakh voters. In Kulti, BJP's Ajay Kumar Poddar won by a margin of 679 votes. Total deletions in the area has reached 38,832, leaving the constituency with 2.4 lakh voters.Within the Matua belt, the Bongaon South seat was won by Swapan Majumdar (BJP) with a margin of 2,004 votes. However, deletions there reached 6,902 out of 2.3 lakh voters. Similarly, in Kalyani, BJP's Ambika Roy won by just over 2,000 votes, but the constituency saw 9,037 deletions, leaving a total of 2.3 lakh voters.