Nearly nine million people in the Indian state of West Bengal have lost their voting rights ahead of crucial assembly elections this month, following a contentious revision of electoral rolls by the Election Commission of India. This figure represents approximately 12 percent of the state's 76 million voters, an outcome that critics claim targets specific demographic groups. "The market is telling you something. Listen," veteran journalist James Okafor noted, referring to the political implications of such a large-scale exclusion.
The number that matters here is nine million. That is the count of individuals whose names have been struck from the voter lists in West Bengal, India, as the state prepares for its two-phase assembly election on April 23 and April 29. This widespread deletion follows a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, which the Election Commission of India (ECI) states aims to purify electoral rolls.
However, the sheer scale of removals, particularly affecting certain communities, has drawn considerable scrutiny. Nabijan Mondal, a 73-year-old resident of Gobindapur village in North 24 Parganas district, embodies the human cost of this bureaucratic exercise. She has participated in every Indian election for five decades.
Suddenly, her name vanished from the list. Her husband, three sons, and a daughter, along with their spouses, all retained their voting status. Her documents, however, showed a discrepancy: her voter card used her nickname, "Nabijan," while other government identification, including her Aadhaar and ration cards, listed her as "Nabirul." This minor difference, previously overlooked, now prevents her from voting. "This time, my whole family will vote, but I won’t be able to," Mondal told Al Jazeera. "I do not understand things much, and did not know the names being different would bar me from voting."
Of the nine million deletions, nearly six million voters were classified as either absentee or deceased. The remaining three million face an uncertain path; they will be unable to cast ballots until special tribunals review their cases. Legal challenges to this process have reached the Supreme Court of India, which earlier this week stated it could not permit those with pending tribunal cases to vote in the April election.
The court did, however, suggest the ECI could publish supplementary voter lists before the polls. Such a volume of cases, however, makes timely resolution before election day highly unlikely. Geographic analysis of these deletions reveals a significant pattern.
Districts with substantial Muslim populations have seen some of the highest numbers of removals. Murshidabad, for instance, recorded 460,000 deletions. North 24 Parganas saw 330,000 names removed, while Malda accounted for 240,000.
West Bengal is home to nearly 25 million Muslims, comprising roughly 27 percent of the state’s 106 million population, according to the 2011 census. This makes it India's second-largest Muslim population among states, after Uttar Pradesh. Al Jazeera reporters met several Muslim families in villages like Gobindapur, Gobra, and Balki in North 24 Parganas, who described various reasons for their names being struck.
These included struggles to prove residential status, changes of surnames after marriage, discrepancies in name spellings, or names appearing on previous lists from as far back as 2002. Sohidul Islam, 49, from Sagarpara village in Murshidabad, also found his name missing, despite a history of voting. "I am in deep pain," Islam shared with Al Jazeera. "Who will I approach? I never thought my name would be deleted from the list." His focus now is on reinstatement, regardless of the time and money required.
This sentiment reflects a broader anxiety among those affected. The Election Commission of India maintains that the SIR process is a standard procedure designed to ensure accurate voter rolls by removing duplicates and deceased individuals, while also adding eligible citizens who may have been overlooked. However, the implementation has drawn sharp criticism.
Opposition parties and Muslim advocacy groups accuse the ECI of conducting a systematic exercise aimed at removing voters perceived as unlikely to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). West Bengal is a state the BJP has never managed to win. The Trinamool Congress (TMC), a key opposition party led by Mamata Banerjee, has governed West Bengal since 2011, succeeding 34 years of communist rule.
Banerjee, a vocal critic of Modi, herself petitioned the Supreme Court in February, alleging partisan behavior by the ECI after the SIR launched in October last year. "The SIR process was selectively applied in West Bengal to benefit the BJP," she stated at a recent campaign rally, as reported by Al Jazeera. She further contended that the BJP was attempting to "forcefully capture votes through fraudulent means."
Conversely, Bimal Sankar Nanda, a West Bengal BJP leader, defended the process. He told Al Jazeera that while no eligible Indian should be excluded, no ineligible voters should remain on the list. Nanda accused the TMC of maintaining names of "dead and shifted voters" on the rolls.
He also claimed that the "demographic character of the border areas [with Bangladesh] has been changing in a calculated manner." The BJP has frequently used the narrative of Bangladeshi "infiltrators" or "illegal migrants" to appeal to its Hindu support base, a tactic also employed in recent assembly elections in Assam, another northeastern state bordering Bangladesh. Sabir Ahamed, from the Kolkata-based SABAR Institute, an independent research organization, offered a critical perspective on the process. While electoral roll revisions are routine, typically spanning one to two years, Ahamed noted that the West Bengal SIR was conducted with unusual haste. "There seems to be some motive behind such a hurried activity," he told Al Jazeera.
He pointed to the use of "micro observers with no local knowledge" brought in from other states and a lack of transparency, with lists often published late at night. The SABAR Institute's analysis of deletions in two key constituencies, Nandigram and Bhabanipur, highlights a stark disparity. In Nandigram, where Muslims constitute about 25 percent of the population, over 95 percent of deleted names were Muslim.
Similarly, in Bhabanipur, with a 20 percent Muslim population, 40 percent of removed voters were Muslim. Ahamed explained that over five million people were initially placed on an Absent, Shifted, Dead, or Duplicate (ASDD) list. Subsequently, AI tools identified "logical discrepancy" cases, often stemming from the translation of Urdu or Arabic names into Bengali or English. "Our studies find that Muslims from the mapped population have been disproportionately deleted," Ahamed concluded.
The impact extends beyond religious identity, significantly affecting women and the poor. Swati Narayan, who teaches law, poverty, and development at the National Law School of India University in Bengaluru, explained to Al Jazeera that these groups are at a heightened risk of disenfranchisement due to difficulties in acquiring necessary documents. "In case of women, they shift houses especially after marriage in a patrilocal society," Narayan observed. She also highlighted the common use of nicknames in West Bengal and the practice of women, particularly Muslim women, changing surnames post-marriage, alongside potential errors in name translation. "What we now see is an exercise which has led to the rise of large-scale panic among residents," she said.
Jesmina Khatun, 31, from Gobindapur, illustrates this point. Despite having all her documents in order with correct spellings, her name was removed. The issue stemmed from a minor difference in her father's name: "Goffer Mondal" on her school certificate and "Gaffar Mondal" on other documents.
Her father retained his voting rights, but Jesmina, a three-time voter, did not. "I feel so anxious these days," she told Al Jazeera. Psephologist and political commentator Yogendra Yadav, who challenged a similar SIR exercise in Bihar before the Supreme Court last year, echoed these concerns. He asserted that the SIR places an "excessive burden" on female voters. "Men have to account for papers in the family in the location where they live, and women have to produce papers from the location they don’t live, which is their ‘maika’ [father’s home]," Yadav told Al Jazeera.
He noted that the differential burden and a lack of sensitivity towards cultural practices, such as women changing first names after marriage, contribute to "the largest ever disenfranchisement of women voters." Yadav views the problem as systemic: "The problem lies with the state. It demands of people documents that it has never provided."
Mohammad Bakibillah Molla, head of the West Bengal chapter of the All India Imam Association, confirmed that his organization has established helplines across the state to assist individuals whose names have been deleted. "There should be no conspiracy against any eligible Indian voter, be it Muslim or Hindu or any other community," Molla stated. "Who will account for people who will be unable to vote?" The ECI officials in West Bengal did not respond to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment. Why It Matters: This massive deletion of voters carries significant implications for India’s democratic integrity. Such an exercise, particularly when it disproportionately affects specific communities and vulnerable groups, raises questions about fairness and electoral manipulation.
The ability to vote is a fundamental right, and its arbitrary removal can erode public trust in institutions and influence election outcomes, potentially altering the political landscape of a critical state like West Bengal. Strip away the noise and the story is simpler than it looks: a large number of citizens feel their voice is being silenced. Key Takeaways: - Nearly nine million voters, 12% of West Bengal's electorate, have been removed from rolls ahead of state elections. - The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process disproportionately affected Muslim voters and women due to name discrepancies and document requirements. - Opposition parties allege political motivations, while the ruling BJP cites efforts to remove "ineligible" voters. - Expert analysis suggests a hurried process, lack of transparency, and significant disparities in deletions across constituencies.
As West Bengal heads to the polls on April 23 and April 29, with votes slated for counting on May 4, the focus will remain on the turnout and the immediate aftermath of these deletions. The Supreme Court's suggestion regarding supplementary voter lists offers a potential, albeit challenging, avenue for some to regain their voting rights. The long-term political impact of this widespread disenfranchisement, and how the newly elected government addresses the concerns of millions of excluded citizens, will be closely watched.
Key Takeaways
— - Nearly nine million voters, 12% of West Bengal's electorate, have been removed from rolls ahead of state elections.
— - The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process disproportionately affected Muslim voters and women due to name discrepancies and document requirements.
— - Opposition parties allege political motivations, while the ruling BJP cites efforts to remove "ineligible" voters.
— - Expert analysis suggests a hurried process, lack of transparency, and significant disparities in deletions across constituencies.
Source: Al Jazeera