The SIR conundrum in West Bengal

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal has finally come to an end with around 60 lakh voters being barred from trial as per the Supreme Court’s directions on February 20, 2026.

West Bengal’s voter turnout stood at 7.04 crore on February 28, 2026, decreasing by 8.09% since the revision process began on October 27, 2025, when the number of voters in the state was 7.66 crore. The names of some voters will be deleted from the electoral rolls after the 501 judicial officers complete the trial process, but for the people of West Bengal, the process seems to be finally over.

For almost four months, the West Bengal administration was on edge, trying to review and update the voter lists. More than five lakh government officials, including 80,681 BLOs (cab-level civil servants) at each polling station in the state, were required to complete the process.

According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), the main purpose of SIR is to ensure the inclusion of eligible voters and exclusion of ineligible voters.

An updated and revised electoral roll forms the basis of elections in democracies. In West Bengal, the process took a long time to complete. So, while the pollster’s intention to update and revise the voter list can be criticised, the commission floundered over the way the exercise was carried out over four months.

There was a rush to complete the process before the Assembly elections in West Bengal were announced. This not only put the officials involved in the process under great stress but also caused distress to the voters of the State. Millions of people, including sick elderly people, lined up in poorly organized SIR camps. There was little clarity about what notices were given to voters to come to the camps and what documents were required to prove that someone was a legitimate voter.

The Supreme Court intervened on several occasions to facilitate the process and even pointed out the ‘trust deficit’ between the State government and the poll panel before appointing judicial officers to complete the last leg of the process.

The Trinamool Congress leadership not only opposed the SIR but also tried to disrupt the process. This was a political move to mobilize the public against the SIR and thereby accuse the poll body and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Center of imposing a harsh and poorly executed exercise on the people.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made the most of the SIR, writing half a dozen letters to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and criticizing the Commission and its officials in the strongest terms. Ms. Banerjee took out several protest marches in the State, took a delegation of SIR sufferers to the EC headquarters, appeared before the Supreme Court herself and made a huge demonstration before the voters of the State.

The Trinamool Congress chief managed to score political points months ahead of the Assembly elections by relying on SIR’s opposition; although some claims that over a hundred people have died due to SIR fears are not entirely true.

The West Bengal BJP leadership, which had requested SIR on the grounds that infiltration across the Bangladesh border had led to demographic change, seems a bit disappointed with the outcome of the exercise. Contrary to the claims of BJP leaders that millions of names will be deleted, the SIR app has seen around 62 lakh names deleted so far.

SIR has debunked many myths about West Bengal’s voters and politics. The highest category of deletion was in the deceased voters category where 24 lakh names were deleted. The shifted category of voters resulted in deletion of 18 lakh and the deletion of voters who did not collect SIR census forms was around 12 lakh. Majority of the names deleted and shifted due to absenteeism were migrant workers from other states in West Bengal. Such deletions were high in constituencies around Kolkata, where the immigrant population was high.

The Matuas, a sect of Hindu refugees from Bangladesh who have migrated to the state over the last few decades, have faced the heat of the SIR for lacking old data such as the names of their ancestors in the 2002 voter list. The minority-majority districts of Malda and Murshidabad account for almost 20% of the cases adjudicated.

These indicators suggest that neither the BJP’s claim that the state’s voter list is full of people infiltrating from across the border nor the Trinamool’s fear-mongering that thousands of genuine voters will see their names deleted from the voter rolls are true.

Now that the SIR exercise is almost over, the poll panel is likely to announce the dates of the Assembly elections in the state in the next few days. With a cleaned and updated voter list, Parliamentary elections will better reflect the mandate of the people.