Voter roll deletions shift West Bengal polls from governance to identity battle
The mood changed dramatically after SIR deletions reduced the electorate by nearly 12 percent.
Political parties estimate that of the over 91 lakh names removed, nearly 31 lakh were Muslim and the remaining 61 lakh were Hindu, giving the practice a social and political advantage even though the Election Commission did not disclose any religious distinction.
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Till a few months ago, the BJP wanted the assembly elections to revolve around TMC’s “15 years of misrule”, job scams, women’s safety, unemployment and TMC’s alleged appeasement of minorities.
The TMC, on the other hand, was preparing to advocate ‘Lakshmir Bhandar’, a financial assistance scheme for women, ‘Duare Sarkar’ (government on the doorstep), welfare distribution, roads and rural infrastructure and wrap these in the larger Bengali ‘asmita’ (pride) plank.
These problems have not gone away. But they no longer dominate the campaign. With just days left for the first assembly elections on April 23, the political buzzwords in Bengal are not corruption, employment or welfare. These are “erased names”, “citizenship”, “foreigner”, “infiltration” and “fake voter”. The question that increasingly animates the elections is not whether the TMC governs well or badly, or whether the BJP can deliver better governance. It is a matter of whether the state recognizes as a voter a person who has been voting for decades.
Political analyst Suman Bhattacharya said SIR changed the axis of the election.
“Until November last year, this looked like a classic anti-incumbency election against the TMC. The question now is who is the real voter and whose name has been deleted from the voters’ list. The election is now a contest between the arithmetic of deletions and the sentiment created by them,” he said.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has recalibrated her campaign in the last month. He now speaks at rally after rally about “rights,” “identity” and “constitutional protection.”
No longer content to portray herself merely as a champion of prosperity and Bengali pride, Banerjee is positioning herself as a protector of those who fear exclusion from the electoral rolls.
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TMC leader Jaiprakash Majumdar said, “This election is no longer just about winning or losing. This is about saving the names, rights and dignity of people who are suddenly told they cannot belong.” he said.
TMC’s new political line is loud and clear: If your name disappears from the list, your citizenship becomes questionable.
For the BJP, SIR has given sharper political vocabulary to an argument it has long been making: Bengal’s voter lists contain “fake voters”, illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and spies allegedly protected by the TMC.
“The previous campaign focused on corruption and unemployment. These problems continue. But SIR has brought the focus back to infiltration. Genuine Hindu refugees have nothing to fear. Only fake names and infiltrators are being eliminated,” said Debjit Sarkar, a BJP leader.
The result is that elections are now held not only over governance but also over the definition of citizenship.
The Left Front said that both the BJP and the TMC have found a convenient way to divert the issue from unemployment, inflation and corruption in the SIR.
“The real problems of jobs, price rise and collapse of institutions have not gone away. But identity creates sharper fear and deeper polarization. So both sides talk less about employment and more about who is an outsider,” CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said. he said.
But in the field, it is clear which problem trumps the others.
School job scams still resonate in rural and semi-urban parts of Bengal. Unemployment and corruption still worry young and middle-class voters. But in tea stalls, local clubs, market parades and village squares across the state, the conversation returns again and again to a single question: whose name has been lost?
The phrase “erased names” became the emotional focus of the campaign. The sharpest effect is seen in districts where identity always carries voter weight.
The campaign has reached alarming proportions in Nadia and Matua belt of North 24 Parganas. For years, the BJP’s appeal here has been based on the promise of citizenship through the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. The TMC hit back with social outreach, local organizing and accusations that the BJP was merely using refugees as a political slogan.
The new fear among Matua families is: Will they still be on the list after decades of voting?
TMC leader Jyotipriya Mallick claimed that SIR was creating “panic” among refugee families. The BJP denied this accusation and said the practice actually separates genuine refugees from illegal infiltrators.
The political mood is different but equally charged in minority-dominated areas like Murshidabad, Malda and South 24 Parganas. There, words like “deleted voter” and “fake voter” begin to dominate political conversations.
The BJP said the SIR had exposed Muslim infiltrators who were allegedly protected by the ruling party. However, the TMC described the revision as a deliberate attempt to target Bengali-speaking Muslims.
The same anxiety is now evident even in Kolkata’s middle-class areas like Bhabanipur, Ballygunge and New Town. Increasingly, issues in public housing and slums revolve around whether immigrant tenants, domestic workers, and even long-established families may find themselves marginalized.
Political scientist Maidul Islam said the election moved from a governance debate to a recognition debate.
“The previous question was whether the TMC can succeed or whether the BJP can defeat Mamata Banerjee. The new question is: Will I remain a voter? This is what makes SIR different from other issues in the polls,” he said.
