The recently released draft electoral rolls for West Bengal, resulting from the Election Commission’s (EC) Special Intensive Revision (SIR), have become a contentious issue in the political landscape. The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has utilized this data to directly challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) previous claims that “one crore Rohingyas and Bangladeshis” are illegally registered as voters in the state.
Following a month-long process of enumeration, verification, and scrutiny in preparation for the 2026 assembly elections, the draft registers were finalized. This extensive effort led to the removal of over 58 lakh names, citing reasons such as death, permanent migration, duplication, and non-submission of forms. Notably, the EC identified only 183,328 voters as ‘fake’ or ‘ghost’, a number significantly lower than the opposition’s repeated assertions.
BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari had previously claimed that the alleged illegal infiltration by Bangladeshi and Rohingya immigrants has compromised the state’s electoral integrity and affected previous election results. He urged the EC to take robust measures to eliminate these purported illegal voters.
Armed with the updated data, the TMC initiated a targeted rebuttal, accusing Adhikari of spreading “misinformation.” The party has consistently argued that the idea of a massive influx of Rohingya voters is a fabricated narrative aimed at swaying public sentiment ahead of the elections.
TMC spokesperson Krishanu Mitra stated, “In the draft rolls, around 58 lakh voters have been deleted. As per BSF data, around 4,000 people have crossed back into Bangladesh through the Hakimpur border. What we are hearing is that in nearly 80% Muslim-dominated constituencies, the average deletion rate is 0.6%, while in Matua-dominated regions, the average deletion rate is around 9%.”
He further questioned, “The state’s overall deletion rate is around 4%. If you exclude deaths, who are the remaining deleted voters? Through which borders did they leave?”
In response, the BJP dismissed TMC’s counterclaims, with Adhikari reportedly ridiculing the accusations. “This is just the beginning. Breakfast has just begun. There will be lunch, tea, and then dinner,” he remarked.
The release of the draft rolls has coincided with heightened political rhetoric surrounding alleged cross-border migration, particularly in the North 24 Parganas district adjacent to Bangladesh. A minor but ongoing flow of undocumented Bangladeshis returning via the Hakimpur and Bongaon borders has emerged as a new point of contention, further escalating tensions between the BJP and TMC regarding voter list validity and the EC’s high-stakes revision process in the lead-up to the polls.
