Nearly 91 lakh names have been removed from West Bengal’s electoral rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, according to data released by the Election Commission.
The revision process, which began in November last year, initially led to the deletion of 63.66 lakh names—around 8.3 per cent of the electorate—bringing down the voter base from approximately 7.66 crore to just over 7.04 crore. Subsequent scrutiny has pushed the total deletions to around 90.83 lakh.
A significant portion of the electorate had been placed under the “under adjudication” category during the revision. Out of 60.06 lakh such voters, over 27.16 lakh names were deleted following verification by judicial officers, while more than 32.68 lakh were retained and included in the final rolls.
Election Commission officials stated that the exercise was conducted in a phased and transparent manner, with district-wise data made publicly available to ensure accountability. Data for 59.84 lakh of the adjudicated cases has already been published, while the remaining cases are pending procedural formalities such as e-signatures.
Officials indicated that minor changes in the final figures may occur once pending formalities are completed, but any further inclusion of voters will be subject to legal provisions and directions from competent authorities.
With the publication of the final supplementary list, electoral rolls for the first phase of the West Bengal Assembly elections have been frozen in accordance with election norms. A total of 152 out of 294 seats will go to polls on April 23, while the remaining 142 constituencies will vote on April 29. Rolls for the second phase are set to be frozen on April 9.
The Election Commission clarified that no further additions can be made to the voter list at this stage unless directed otherwise by the Supreme Court, which is scheduled to hear matters related to the revision process on April 13.
