People wait in a queue during hearings under the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, at a centre, in Kolkata. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
A decision has been made on 32 lakh voter records of the 60 lakh under adjudication in West Bengal till Wednesday, according to sources in the State’s Chief Electoral Office. Of the 32 lakh, names of at least 40% (about 13 lakh) have been deleted from the electoral rolls, the sources added.
Around 28 lakh voters under adjudication are still waiting for a decision.
The Election Commission had published the first supplementary list on March 23 midnight containing 10 lakh names.
No details were formally shared by the EC officials on Wednesday about the number of deletions nearly 40 hours after publication of the first list.
At least 60 lakh people across the State were put under adjudication with 700 judicial officers working to dispose of the pending cases.
While constituency and booth-wise data are available online, voters lament that the lists have not been displayed on paper in any government offices, leaving those without digital access scrambling for information. The names on the lists have to be verified individually after logging into the Election Commission’s website.
The voters whose names have been deleted can make an appeal to the 19 tribunals set up across districts in the State. Their pleas will be reconsidered by these tribunals led by former judges.
According to sources, the EC officials have sought permission from the Calcutta High Court to publish supplementary lists every day instead of publishing them every Friday.
Uncertainty looms
At least 522 voters were under adjudication in the Silampur 1 gram panchayat area in Sujapur constituency of Malda district where people alleged that 427 names have been deleted. “We have lived here for generations. My forefathers were born here. We are citizens of the place. What will we do now,” said a man in his 70s whose name has been struck off the list.
Residents alleged large-scale deletions despite submitting documents during the special intensive revision (SIR) process.
Sabina Yasmin, the Trinamool Congress candidate from Sujapur, condemned the deletions, while BJP candidate Abhiraj Chaudhary said that he would take up the issue with the administration.
A similar incident of 340 deletions among 358 under-adjudication cases were reported from North 24 Parganas district’s Basirhat area, said booth-level officer Mohammad Shaiful Alam.
Protests erupted in the area with residents demanding justice and crying foul over wrongful deletions of names from voter lists.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed women voters have been particularly targeted in the SIR process and their names been deleted in bulk.
“In a shameful display of misogyny, the BJP has arbitrarily deleted the names of lakhs of Bengali women from the electoral rolls simply because they adopted their husbands’ surnames after marriage,” Ms. Banerjee said during a poll campaign in northern Bengal on Wednesday.
As the confusion over the final voter list and supplementary lists intensifies, it is emerging as a major electoral issue ahead of the two-phase election on April 23 and 29.
Glitch in adjudication
On Tuesday (March 24, 2026) night, most voters across West Bengal were shown to be “under adjudication” on the EC’s website. This led to anxiety among many locals as ruling Trinamool Congress leaders came down heavily on the EC saying that the BJP has turned the “entire electorate of Bengal into suspects”. However, around midnight, authorities in the CEO’s office said that the issue was due to a “technical glitch” and was resolved immediately.
Published – March 25, 2026 09:10 pm IST
