Bengal voter count shrinks by 12% from pre-SIR level

KOLKATA: After playing out over 155 days, the SIR process in Bengal ended on Tuesday with the final tally showing that about 90.8 lakh of the state's pre-SIR voters - nearly 12% of the original 7.6 crore electorate - had been axed from the 2026 voter rolls.More than 63 lakh of this 90.8 lakh were deleted in the first phase, which removed absent and deceased voters, as well as those who may have shifted residence. The remaining 27 lakh were removed during the highly contentious second phase of the process that targeted voters with "logical discrepancies", even if they were mapped in the 2002 SIR rolls. This clause used five parameters ranging from misspelled surnames to individuals with more than six siblings to segregate over 60 lakh voters whose fate was adjudicated by judicial officers.

About 27 lakh of these voters were finally left out of the electoral roll.

Murshidabad, North 24 Parganas, Malda, South 24 Parganas and East Burdwan were the five districts that lost the highest number of voters during the judicial adjudication process. Two of these districts (Murshidabad and Malda) are Muslim-majority, while a third (North 24 Parganas) has a significant population of the Matua community. In Kolkata North electoral district, about 39,000 of over 61,000 'under-adjudication' voters were found ineligible.

For Kolkata South, the deleted count after adjudication was over 28,000. All those struck off the electoral roll lose their right to vote in the 2026 assembly polls. The voters' list for the first phase, which will see polling across 152 assembly constituencies, has already been frozen. These constituencies together have lost about 14.3 lakh electors during the judicial adjudication process.North & South 24 Pgns top in name deletions The voters' list for the second phase on April 29 will be frozen on April 9.

About 12.9 lakh voters from 142 assembly constituencies that vote in the second phase have been deleted after judicial adjudication.While the Supreme Court has allowed all those deleted after judicial adjudication to move tribunals, these judicial bodies are yet to start work. The apex court is likely to hear the Bengal SIR case again on April 13, giving deleted voters a small window of hope.Among the districts, the highest number of voters were lost in North 24 Parganas (12.6 lakh), South 24 Parganas (10.9 lakh) and Murshidabad (7.5 lakh) - all three bordering Bangladesh. Kolkata North electoral district, too, lost about 4.5 lakh voters even though deletions in Kolkata South were comparitively less at about 2.5 lakh. The metropolis, covering 11 assembly segments, will have about seven lakh less voters than 2024.