SIR deletions: Kolkata may bear max impact

The enumeration phase of the SIR exercise in West Bengal, which goes to the polls in the summer of 2026, ended on Thursday night.

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal is set to remove around 5.82 million names and four out of the five assembly constituencies with potentially the highest percentage of deletions are in the state capital of Kolkata, an analysis of election commission data showed on Saturday.

The TMC had said it won’t allow genuine voters to be affected.(PTI)

The enumeration phase of the controversial exercise in the state, which goes to the polls in the summer of 2026, ended on Thursday night. In all, 7.6% of the 76.64 million electors in the eastern state might be removed, similar to the 8% deletions seen after the SIR in Bihar earlier this year.

The draft roll will be published on Tuesday. The final roll will be published in February next year.

“The total number of uncollectible forms in the state till Saturday morning, which includes dead, duplicate, shifted and untraceable voters, stood at 5.82 million. The number may rise further,” a senior official said, requesting anonymity.

The districts with the highest possible deletions are likely to be Kolkata (25.1%), Paschim Bardhaman (13.2%) and Howrah (10.8%). Districts with the lowest likely deletions are Purba Medinipur (4.6%), Bankura (4.4%), and Cooch Behar (3.3%).

The analysis showed that the five constituencies that are likely to have the highest percentage of deletions – Jorasanko, Chowringhee, Howrah Uttar, Kolkata Port, and Ballygunge – are all in Kolkata or in its suburbs. Forms could not be collected from 36.8%, 35.4%, 27%, 26.2%, and 25.5% electors, respectively, in these seats, according to data. All five seats were won by the ruling Trinamool Congress in 2021.

The five seats that are likely to have the fewest deletions are Katulpur, Nandakumar, Sabang, Karimpur, and Patashpur. They are likely to see deletions in the 2.2%-2.5% range, data showed. The TMC won four of the five seats in 2021, with the exception of Katulpur, which was won by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

In absolute terms, the highest number of deletions are likely to be in Kolkata, Hooghly, Howrah, South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas, data showed. These districts are strongholds of the TMC, which stormed to a third consecutive term in 2021 with213 seats. At least 818,431 names are likely to be dropped from South 24 Parganas, 792,133 from North 24 Parganas district, 447,340 from Howrah, 390,390 from Kolkata North and 318,874 from Hooghly, data showed.

Names of at least 44,770 voters are likely to be dropped in south Kolkata’s Bhowanipore, the assembly constituency of chief minister Mamata Banerjee. “Around 44770 enumeration forms could not be collected from voters in Bhowanipore assembly constituency. This includes 10901 dead voters, 19456 untraceable, 12545 who have shifted and 1101 duplicate voters,” said a senior official.

At least 10,604 names are likely to be deleted from the electoral roll in Nandigram in East Midnapore, accounting for 3.8% of the constituency’s electorate. This proportion is the 40th lowest among the state’s 294 assembly constituencies.

ECI data recorded 76.64 million electors in West Bengal as on October 27, 2025. Of this, 70.82 million had their electoral forms digitised by December 13 (92.4%), but forms could not be collected from 5.82 million (7.6%). The reason for the 5.82 million uncollected forms is death in the case of 2.42 million electors, untraceable/absent electors for 1.22 million, permanently shifted electors for 1.99 million, already enrolled electors for 0.14 million, and a miscellaneous “others” category for 0.06 million.

Among the 70.82 million digitised, 38.28 million (54.1%) mapped themselves to the 2002 roll through their relatives, 29.39 million (41.5%) mapped themselves to the 2002 roll, and 3.12 million (4.4%) had no mapping to the 2002 roll.

HT’s analysis found that there appeared to be no direct correlation between seats with maximum potential deletions and TMC victories. In 2021, the TMC won 72% seats. Its seat share is 86% in the 59 seats with the highest deletions (top 20% seats); but its seat share drops to just 56% among the 59 seats with the next highest possible deletions in percentage terms. On the other hand, TMC won 76% of the seats which are in the bottom 20%-40% in terms of deletions, more than its state-level seat share.

HT’s analysis also found that there appeared to be no apparent correlation between districts with high Muslim populations and maximum possible deletions. Merging current districts with their parent districts in the 2011 census, the highest likely deletions are in Kolkata, Howrah, and North 24 Parganas, which are likely to see 25.1%, 10.8%, and 9.5% deletions, respectively. Their Muslim population share was ranked only 12th highest, seventh highest, and eighth highest in the 2011 census. The three districts with Muslim majority or near Muslim majority in the 2011 census – Murshidabad, Maldah, and Uttar Dinajpur – are all likely to see fewer deletions than the state average of 7.6%. The three districts are likely to see 4.8%, 6.3%, and 7.4% deletions.

In absolute numbers, Chowringhee in North Kolkata, which is held by TMC lawmaker Nayana Bandyopadhyay, may register 74,510 deletions, the highest among all 294 assembly constituencies in the state. Kolkata Port, represented by cabinet minister and Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim, may see 63,717 deletions. Tollygunge, in south Kolkata, from where another cabinet minister Aroop Biswas won, may log 35,308 deletions.

“Discrepancies have been detected in the enumeration forms of at least 16,745,911 voters in the state. There could be multiple reasons behind this, including technical errors in the app used to digitise the forms, errors in the database or deliberate attempts. BLOs have been directed to visit the houses of such voters and re-verify the details,” a senior ECI official in Kolkata said on condition of anonymity.

The official said the discrepancies were detected during the mapping of voters with the 2002 list, when the last SIR was held. “BLOs have been directed to recheck the voter’s record after a house survey. If the discrepancies persist even after the verification process, these voters would be called for a hearing by the election registration officer after the publication of the draft roll.”

According to a senior official, more than 8.5 million voters have been detected with mismatches in their father’s names. There are around two million voters who are more than 45, but their names do not appear in the 2002 list. The age gap of another 1.1 million voters with their parents is less than 15 years. In entries of around 1.3 million voters, the gender mentioned in the 2002 list did not match with , they said.

The TMC said it won’t allow genuine voters to be affected.

“The number of uncollectible forms in Bhowanipore is around 44,000. This doesn’t mean their names have been deleted. After the draft roll is published, TMC workers will visit all these people to find out the reason. If we find that the name of any voter has been wrongly deleted, we will take it up,” said Jay Prakash Majumdar, TMC state vice president.

The BJP said the TMC won in 2021 due to fake voters. “The electoral roll was full of fake voters. They were the main vote bank of the TMC. Now that the SIR has been rolled out, everything is being revealed gradually. The TMC will stand no chance if the voters’ list is cleaned up,” said Rahul Sinha, BJP leader.