SIR, yes SIR: How voter deletions impacted West Bengal elections

NEW DELHI: West Bengal has turned saffron. Mamata Banerjee's 15-year rule has ended and BJP is all set to form its first government in the state. So, what contributed to this decisive political shift in the state’s electoral landscape? Well, there were multiple factors that contributed to the outcome, but the one that was most contentious was the revision of the electoral rolls - SIR.

How SIR became the defining issue of the elections

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls emerged as a central and deeply contested factor shaping the 2026 West Bengal electoral contest. The exercise led to the removal of close to 91 lakh names — roughly 12% of the electorate — significantly altering the voter base ahead of polling. Of these, over 60 lakh were classified as deceased, while the status of 27 lakh remains pending or under scrutiny. The tribunals set up by the Election Commission on the orders of the Supreme Court could reinstate only a small portion of these 27 lakh voters. According to various reports, those affected by SIR included a large proportion of Muslims, a significant section of the Matua community and also the Hindus. BJP called the SIR a necessary clean-up of electoral rolls aimed at removing ‘illegal’ or duplicate entries. But the opposition, including Mamata's party, countered this and described the exercise as systematic disenfranchisement leading to open war of words.Regardless of these competing narratives, the scale and spread of deletions had a mark on the voting trends across the state. The total voter base dropped from over 7.66 crore to around 7.04 crore, excluding those still under adjudication. In 169 assembly constituencies where more than 25,000 names were deleted, TMC had dominated in 2021, winning 128 seats compared to BJP’s 41. This time, however, the balance shifted significantly. In the 2026 polls, BJP's tally rose to 104 seats and TMC's reduced to 63, while Congress won 2 seats.In the remaining 124 seats, where deletions were lower than 25,000, BJP’s tally rose from 36 in 2021 to 108 — marking a three-fold increase. Among the 38 constituencies where 'logical discrepancy' deletions were the highest, TMC had won 34 seats in 2021. In the current election, its tally dropped to 22, underlining the erosion of its earlier dominance in these pockets. Interestingly, in the high-deletion zones, TMC managed to hold its sway. Among the six constituencies with the highest SIR deletions, TMC managed to retain four — Chowringhee, Shamsherganj, Metiaburuz and Kolkata Port — while BJP captured Jorasanko and Howrah North. Notably, all six seats had been won by the Mamata-led party in the previous election.BJP made significant inroads in Kolkata and bordering areas, securing victories in Maniktala, Shyampukur and Cossipore-Belgachhia in Kolkata North, and extended its gains to Rashbehari, Behala East, Bidhannagar, Baranagar, Dum Dum, Dum Dum North and Rajarhat-Gopalpur. It also won seats in Behala West, Tollygunge and Jadavpur - all constituencies that had recorded over 25,000 deletions and were previously held by the Trinamool.In Farakka, which registered over 25,000 deletions, Congress candidate Motab Shaikh won the seat by beating BJP candidate Sunil Chowdhuri by a margin of 8,193 votes. Interestingly, Shaikh, whose name was removed from the voters list, had successfully appealed through an appellate tribunal — one of 19 set up following Supreme Court directions — and secured restoration of his voting rights. A look at the relationship between deletions and victory margins makes it difficult to assess which party was impacted how much by the SIR process. Of the 187 seats that saw over 5,000 names deleted, BJP won 119. In 47 of these constituencies, the number of excluded voters exceeded the margin of victory.Within BJP’s tally of 119 seats, 28 recorded deletions higher than the victory margin of its candidates. Of these, 26 had been won by Trinamool in 2021.Among the 20 constituencies with the highest number of deletions after adjudication, TMC won 13, BJP six and the Congress one. The SIR exercise was accompanied by an unprecedented security deployment. Over 2.4 lakh personnel from Central Armed Police Forces were stationed across West Bengal — more than three times the levels seen in 2021 — creating what the BJP described as a ‘security fortress’.The extensive deployment, coupled with tighter oversight by the Election Commission of India, became another key pillar in enabling what the BJP described as “free and fair voting” in a politically volatile state.At one stage, Mamata approached the Supreme Court over the use of only central government employees as vote-counting supervisors, but the top court declined to intervene. The Matua community emerged as another critical electoral variable touched by the SIR exercise. Despite discontent over large-scale deletions and anxieties surrounding citizenship documentation under the CAA, the BJP retained its foothold in Matua-dominated regions such as Bongaon and Nadia.The removal of approximately 1.2 lakh names under SIR triggered social and political tensions in these areas. In Nadia’s six assembly constituencies, over 90% of those placed under adjudication did not make it to the final electoral rolls. A similar pattern was observed in Bongaon, where deletion rates ranged from 67% to 88%.Bagdah became a focal point of this contest, witnessing a high-profile battle within the influential Thakurbari family. BJP candidate Soma Thakur defeated Trinamool MLA Madhuparna Thakur by 34,321 votes. BJP also retained Bongaon Uttar and secured Haringhata with substantial margins.Despite concerns over exclusion, the Matua electorate — a marginalised Hindu sect primarily comprising the Namasudra scheduled caste group — appeared to consolidate behind BJP. Clearly, the SIR exercise was the most dominant narrative throughout the elections and will continue to be debated for times to come. The opposition will argue that SIR is a tool to target and purge its voters, while BJP will justify the exercise as a much-needed move to cleanse electoral rolls.