Abhishek questions SIR rationale in Bengal, cites lowest deletion rate among states

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, initiated just months ahead of the Assembly elections, has come under sharp attack from Trinamul Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who on Saturday described the exercise as arbitrary, selective and politically motivated.

While the Election Commission has maintained that the objective of SIR is to weed out so-called “ghost voters”, Abhishek presented a detailed statistical comparison to argue that Bengal has recorded the lowest deletion rate among major states, making the continued focus on the state unjustified. Citing figures released by the Election Commission, Abhishek pointed out that 58.20 lakh names have been deleted from the voter list in Bengal, amounting to 5.79 per cent of the total electorate of 10.5 crore. He emphasised that this was significantly lower than several other states. In Tamil Nadu, he noted, 57.30 lakh names were deleted from a population of 7.75 crore, translating into 12.5 per cent. Gujarat saw deletions of 60.41 lakh names, amounting to 9.95 per cent, while Chhattisgarh recorded 3.12 lakh deletions or 8.76 per cent.

Advertisement

In Kerala, governed by the CPI(M), 24.8 lakh names were removed from an electorate of 3.62 crore, accounting for 6.65 per cent. Abhishek asserted that despite these figures, Bengal was being singled out through repeated notices and intensified scrutiny. He further alleged that the narrative pushed by the BJP regarding the presence of a large number of Rohingya and Bangladeshi voters in Bengal had not been substantiated by the outcome of the SIR process. He also drew attention to the alleged inconsistency in the Election Commission of India’s approach, highlighting that border states, such as Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram were not subjected to similar large-scale revisions. According to him, the pattern of action reflected discrimination against Bengal and resulted in the harassment of ordinary Bengali voters.

The Trinamul leader also linked the SIR controversy to broader issues of alleged discrimination by the Centre, referring to the prolonged withholding of funds under the MGNREGA and PM Awas Yojana schemes. He argued that despite corruption allegations surfacing in BJP-ruled states such as Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, central funding there remained unaffected. Abhishek further criticised the handling of voter mapping data, noting that the initial figure of 45 per cent mapping was later revised upward to 89.65 per cent, without any acknowledgement of error. He also flagged the disparity in extensions granted for SIR in states like Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and even the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, while Bengal was denied similar relief.

Notably, hearings under the SIR process began in Bengal on Saturday, with several MPs, MLAs and their family members receiving notices.