Kolkata, Dec 16 (PTI) West Bengal’s electorate has undergone its sharpest churn in decades, with the EC’s SIR draft rolls striking off over 58 lakh names, redrawing voter profiles across districts, border belts and high-profile constituencies, and injecting fresh political volatility ahead of 2026 assembly polls.
The draft electoral rolls published on Tuesday show the state’s electorate shrinking from around 7.66 crore voters to over 7.08 crore, after names were deleted on grounds ranging from death and permanent migration to duplication and non-submission of enumeration forms.
The EC underlined that the exercise is provisional and subject to hearings.
Nowhere is the churn more visible than in north Bengal, where all seven districts have reported sizeable deletions, particularly in border and urban pockets.
EC sources indicated that around 31,181 names may be deleted from Siliguri, while Kalimpong could see nearly 17,321 deletions.
Jalpaiguri district emerged as one of the most affected. In Dabgram-Phulbari seat, which has around 3.25 lakh voters, as many as 38,395 names are set to be deleted, including over 12,000 marked as deceased and nearly 19,000 untraceable, EC sources said.
Mal seat could lose 21,127 voters, while Jalpaiguri Sadar, Rajganj, Nagrakata and Dhupguri also reported deletions running into five figures. Several of these seats are held by the TMC, while Dabgram-Phulbari, Maynaguri and Nagrakata are with the BJP.
Alipurduar district, which has five assembly seats, is set to lose more than 95,267 voters, nearly half of them marked as deceased, according to EC sources.
District election officials said the deletions could be partly offset by the addition of new voters during the final revision.
In Cooch Behar, which witnessed around 1.13 lakh deletions, the highest was reported from Dinhata (16,442) followed by Sitai (15,999), both border constituencies.
State minister Udayan Guha, who represents Dinhata, said higher voter numbers naturally meant higher counts of deceased and shifted voters. BJP leader Malati Rava, however, said the process was exposing “fake voters” that several parties had long alleged.
Dakshin Dinajpur district’s Gangarampur and Tapan seats — both held by BJP — are among the worst affected, while TMC-held Kumarganj has the lowest deletions in the district.
The Muslim-majority Murshidabad district, bordering Bangladesh and with over 57 lakh voters, witnessed around 2.78 lakh deletions.
In Malda, several India-Bangladesh border constituencies, including Kaliachak, Sujapur, Englishbazar and Habibpur, are likely to see 12,000-20,000 deletions each, EC sources said. Altogether, the district with a sizaeble number of Muslim voters witnessed deletions of over two lakh names from nearly 32 lakh voters when the SIR process began.
The second single largest district-wise impact has been recorded in North 24 Parganas, which has 31 assembly seats, where over 7.92 lakh names have been deleted.
Of these, over 3.08 lakh were marked deceased, 2.18 lakh untraceable and 2.45 lakh permanently shifted.
In Matua-community dominated seats of North 24 Parganas such as Bangaon Uttar, Bangaon Dakshin, Swarupnagar, Gaighata, Baduria, Habra and Ashoknagar, considered as stronghold of the BJP, voter deletions of around 1.25 lakhs were recorded.
Bhatpara, considered BJP leader Arjun Singh’s stronghold, has seen the highest percentage deletions in the state-20.42 per cent, or 31,725 voters.
The constituency is currently represented by his son Pawan Singh.
TMC MLA Somnath Shyam alleged that the figures exposed past electoral manipulation, a charge the BJP rejected.
Bhatpara was followed by Barrackpore (19 per cent deletions), Bidhannagar (18.17 per cent), Rajarhat (17.46 per cent) and Kamarhati (17.39 per cent).
In contrast, Matua-dominated and border constituencies such as Bongaon North, Bongaon South, Gaighata and Bagdah recorded relatively lower deletion percentages, ranging between 1.7 per cent and 8.6 per cent.
In Kolkata, the data has added a sharp political edge. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Bhabanipur constituency has recorded 44,787 deletions-nearly four times the 10,599 names struck off in Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari’s Nandigram seat.
North Kolkata’s Chowringhee logged the highest absolute deletions in the state at 74,553, while Kolkata Port, represented by mayor and senior minister Firhad Hakim, saw 63,730 names removed. Ballygunge (65,171), Behala East and West (over 52,000 each), Shyampukur (42,303) and Tollygunge (35,309) also reported large-scale deletions.
In south Kolkata, four assembly segments – Bhabanipur, Kolkata Port, Ballygunge and Rashbehari – have seen over 2.16 lakh names deleted, nearly 24 per cent of their combined electorate.
Among other BJP-held seats, Asansol South recorded 39,202 deletions, significant given the seat was won by Agnimitra Paul in 2021 by a margin of around 4,000 votes. Siliguri, another key BJP win, saw 31,181 deletions, though the 2021 margin there exceeded 35,000.
Data showed South 24 Parganas district, which has 30 seats and considerable minority population, recorded the highest deletions at over 8.16 lakh names, while Kotulpur in Bankura district reported the lowest at 5,678.
Union minister Sukanta Majumdar said the deletions showed why SIR was “necessary”.
The TMC said the SIR has undercut the claims by BJP leaders that the state hosts “one crore Rohingyas and Bangladeshis”, with the number of voters identified as ‘fake’ or ‘ghost’ pegged at around 1.83 lakhs. PTI PNT NN
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