Kolkata: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made significant gains in assembly constituencies in West Bengal that experienced substantial deletions of voter names during the Special Integrated Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, irrespective of whether the number of deletions exceeded 25,000 or was lower. There were 169 assembly constituencies that went to the polls after the deletion of more than 25,000 names.
Impact of SIR Deletions on Election Results
In the 2021 assembly elections, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) had won 128 of these 169 seats, while the BJP secured 41. However, according to the Election Commission’s “Trends and Results” data released on Monday evening, the BJP was on track to win at least 100 of those constituencies this time. It is important to note that the final numbers may change as the EC had not announced all results by late Monday.
In the remaining 124 seats, where fewer than 25,000 names were deleted, the BJP’s tally rose from 36 in 2021 to 108, marking a three-fold increase. Among the 38 assembly seats with the highest “logical discrepancy” deletions, the TMC had won 34 in 2021 but secured only 22 in the current election.
The SIR process resulted in the deletion of nearly 91 lakh names across West Bengal. Among the six assembly seats that witnessed the most SIR deletions, the TMC won four — Chowringhee, Shamsherganj, Metiaburuz, and Kolkata Port. The remaining two — Jorasanko and Howrah North — went to the BJP. In the previous assembly polls, all six seats had been won by the TMC.
Apart from Jorasanko, the BJP also won three other seats in the Kolkata North electoral district — Maniktala, Shyampukur, and Cossipore-Belgachhia. Additionally, the party secured victories in Rashbehari, Behala East, Bidhannagar, Baranagar, Dum Dum, Dum Dum North, and Rajarhat-Gopalpur, and was leading in Behala West, Tollygunge, and Jadavpur. All these seats had over 25,000 deletions during the SIR and were won by the TMC five years ago.
Farakka was one of the seats with more than 25,000 deletions that the BJP failed to win this time. The constituency elected Congress candidate Motab Shaikh, whose name had been deleted during the SIR. He moved an appellate tribunal — one of 19 set up on the Supreme Court’s order — and successfully got his voting right restored. Shaikh won the Farakka seat by a margin of 63,050 votes.
Expert Analysis
Political analyst and former Rabindra Bharati University Vice-Chancellor Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury commented, “Around 35 lakh voters appealed to appellate tribunals to regain their right to vote. The seats that saw high SIR deletions partly helped the BJP score big. Also, we can presume from the trend that a section of the disenfranchised voters formed the TMC’s vote bank. Other factors that worked in the BJP’s favor in urban and semi-urban areas were women’s safety, lack of jobs, and industrialisation.” He added, “Political change has always come to Bengal in the form of a landslide.”
Subhajit Naskar, who teaches international relations at Jadavpur University, said, “SIR deletions have played a major role in ensuring the BJP’s victory. Many of the seats where the TMC had won by a formidable margin in previous elections have recorded high deletions. Besides, anger against the TMC and other factors such as the job scam helped the BJP.”
