People queue up to submit their petitions before the Special Tribunal after their names were deleted from the Special Intensive Revision final voter list, at Ranaghat town, in Nadia, on April 6, 2026.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Over 27 lakh voters who were put under adjudication were excluded from West Bengal’s electoral rolls on Tuesday (April 7, 2026), with over a quarter of such deletions occurring in two-Muslim dominated districts in the State.
In all, 91 lakh names have been deleted from the State’s voter list since the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) began, meaning that West Bengal’s electorate has shrunk almost 12%, from 7.66 crore electors in October 2025 to 6.75 crore now, days ahead of the Assembly election. In the last Assembly election in 2021, there were 7.34 crore voters eligible to cast their ballot.
Follow | West Bengal election 2026 updates
After the first phase of the SIR, about 63 lakh electors were removed from the voter list till February 28. In addition, 60.06 lakh electors were put under adjudication; of these, 27.16 lakh electors were excluded on Tuesday (April 7, 2026), according to data shared by the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal, indicating a 45% exclusion rate of electors who were put under adjudication.
Muslim-majority districts worst hit
The highest number of such deletions was seen in Murshidabad, the district with the highest percentage of Muslim population in West Bengal. Of the 11.01 lakh names from the district which went for judicial scrutiny over the past few weeks, over 4.55 lakh were excluded. North 24 Parganas, a district which borders Bangladesh and sends the highest numbers of MLAs to the West Bengal Assembly, has registered the deletion of about 3.25 lakh electors under adjudication, followed by Malda, another Muslim-dominated district, with 2.39 lakh deletions.
The fate of the 27 lakh excluded after adjudication now lies with 19 appellate tribunals set up across the State, and people started thronging to these tribunals even before the exclusion list was released. However, so far as this year’s Assembly election is concerned, these voters have run out of chances to exercise their franchise.
The Supreme Court on Monday (April 6, 2026) rejected the West Bengal government’s plea to delay the freezing of the electoral rolls to give a last chance for the 27 lakh voters who did not pass judicial scrutiny. Of the 294 seats in the Assembly, 152 will go to the polls in the first phase on April 23, and the remaining 142 seats will vote in the second phase on April 29. The rolls for the first phase of the election were frozen on April 6, while the second phase rolls will be frozen on April 9.
West Bengal SIR: Supreme Court declines Bengal’s plea to delay voter roll freeze
‘Vote theft’
Terming it “vote theft”, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that a “particular community” had been targeted, in a reference to the high rate of deletions in Muslim-majority areas. “Votes of one particular community have been deleted by picking and choosing. Votes of Matuas and Rajbangshi community have been deleted,” Ms. Banerjee said, while addressing a gathering at Habra in North 24 Parganas.
The Trinamool Congress chairperson has been urging people to cast their votes against the BJP to “take revenge” for the deletion of voters’ names from the electoral rolls, and a delegation of TMC MP leaders led by Derek O’ Brien will visit the Election Commission of India in New Delhi on Wednesday (April 8, 2026).
Editorial | Illogical acts: On SIR adjudication, Malda gherao
BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of Opposition in the MLA, claimed that illegal Bangladesh infiltrators would be removed from the electoral rolls.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who is contesting from Behrampore in Murshidabad, urged the Chief Minister to approach the Supreme Court and the ECI to ensure that those removed from the electoral rolls during the adjudication process are still allowed to vote.
Published – April 07, 2026 03:33 pm IST
