63% Hindu, 34% Muslim: SIR deletions stir Bengal political row

The 2026 Assembly election in West Bengal will be remembered for the key role the SIR—the Special Intensive Review of the electoral rolls, played in deciding the outcome of this crucial election, say observers.

“It was a political exercise right from the beginning,” says a political expert.

The TMC and the BJP, both agree with that view but differ on how it will pan out and impact the election.

The SIR has deleted close to names of one crore voters in the state. Of which, 63 per cent were Hindus and 34 per cent Muslims.

Mamata Banerjee’s supporters said it was undertaken to reduce Didi’s support base, especially among women and Muslim voters. The BJP leaders argued the SIR gave voters a clean list and they showed their appreciation by coming out in large numbers to vote.

In March, the EC published a draft list of just over 7 crore voters (exactly 78,16,630). In its final list after several rounds of deletion of voters from the list, it said about 6.5 crore (6,50,52,609 voters) were eligible to exercise their franchise. It added that 60 lakh or so voters (6,06,675) names were under adjudication. It also pointed out a total of 63.6 lakh (63,66,952) names had been removed from the state’s voters list.

Of these, over 27 lakh names were deleted as dead voters and several others as fake voters. Over 27 lakh voters' names were before the Tribunal for a last-minute scrutiny and addition to the list.

After all the deletions and additions, the final voters list stands at 6.82 crore (6,82,51,008) voters.

Experts said many voters will remain outside the list and not be able to vote as the Tribunal will not have time to properly assess their claim.

Most non-BJP political parties apprehend the SIR exercise was linked to the Modi government’s proposed National Citizens Register that was a move to identify most of the country’s Muslims as aliens.