The Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls begins in West Bengal on Tuesday, igniting a political clash between the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections.
What is normally a routine administrative exercise has turned into a political flashpoint, with the BJP hailing the SIR as a move toward transparency, while the TMC has accused the poll body of acting under BJP pressure to manipulate the voter rolls. Both parties see the revision as the first major test before the state heads to polls next year.
The BJP claims that West Bengal’s voter rolls are riddled with fake entries, alleging that over 40 lakh duplicate or bogus names existed during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The party expects the revision to eliminate “at least one crore” such names. “Those who thrived on ghost voters and bogus ballots are panicking,” BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya said.
The TMC, meanwhile, has mobilised its grassroots machinery to monitor every step of the revision process, vowing to protect genuine voters. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is leading a rally in Kolkata on Tuesday, accusing the Election Commission of conducting a politically motivated exercise aimed at disenfranchising minorities and marginalised groups.
TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee has ordered the appointment of booth-level agents (BLAs) at all 84,000 polling booths to “shadow” booth-level officers (BLOs) during verification. He has also set up constituency-level war rooms and warned that any arbitrary deletions would trigger mass protests, even threatening to bring “one lakh people to Delhi” if names are unfairly removed.
The BJP has accused the TMC of resorting to intimidation tactics and using its “booth muscle” to obstruct a clean-up of the rolls. “The TMC fears losing its illegal vote bank,” a BJP leader alleged.
The SIR, which runs from November 4 to December 4, involves house-to-house verification by BLOs. The Election Commission has trained over 80,000 officers and rolled out a 16-point guideline with a dedicated mobile app to track operations. However, the exercise has faced logistical challenges, with teachers deputed as BLOs protesting their absence being marked in school registers and demanding central protection while visiting volatile areas.
TMC leaders have claimed that four individuals have died by suicide fearing the loss of their voting rights, though the BJP dismissed these claims as “manufactured melodrama.”
Observers say the SIR has evolved into a symbolic tug-of-war between Bengal’s two dominant forces — the BJP’s administrative push backed by central agencies, and the TMC’s formidable booth-level organisation.
“The real contest is not just for votes, but for control,” said a Kolkata-based political analyst. “This revision will test not only the integrity of Bengal’s voter list but the strength of both political machines.”
The enumeration will conclude with the publication of draft rolls on December 9. Objections can be filed until January 8, and the final list is expected on February 7 — just two months before the 2026 Assembly elections.
In West Bengal’s fiercely contested politics, every voter name counts — and this time, the fight begins not at the ballot box, but at the doorstep.
