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In several constituencies, the scale is even starker—the number of voters declared ineligible or deleted was 2-3 times higher than the margin of victory
In 187 constituencies with significant deletions (5,000+ names), the BJP won or led in 119 seats. (PTI)
The 2026 West Bengal election has thrown up a new, data-driven flashpoint that goes beyond campaign narratives and into the mechanics of the electoral roll itself.
According to a report by The Economic Times, the number of voters marked “ineligible” under the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR), along with those still under adjudication, has exceeded the final victory margins in nearly 50 assembly seats across the state. What makes this more politically significant is where these seats lie and who won them.
25 BJP Seats Under the Spotlight
In the constituencies where the number of “ineligible” voters exceeded the winning margin, roughly 50 seats overall fall into this category. Twenty-five of these were won by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a roughly similar number were won by the All India Trinamool Congress, numbers shared by the Election Commission (EC) show.
According to The Economic Times, in several constituencies, the scale is even starker—the number of voters declared ineligible or deleted was 2-3 times higher than the margin of victory. This means that in many seats, the pool of excluded or disputed voters was large enough to potentially alter the result, at least in numerical terms.
What Is SIR?
The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is a voter roll clean-up exercise aimed at removing duplicate entries, shifted voters, and those deemed ineligible.
In West Bengal, the exercise was unusually large in scale wherein over 27 lakh voters were marked ineligible after verification and over 60 lakh names were put under scrutiny during the process, government data revealed. The revision became a major political issue during the campaign itself, with both BJP and TMC accusing each other of benefiting from or being harmed by the deletions.
Margins vs Missing Names
The key insight from the data is the overlap between low-margin seats, and high deletion/ineligible voter counts. In practical terms, if the number of excluded voters is higher than the margin of victory, even a small change in turnout or eligibility decisions could have flipped the seat.
This does not automatically imply wrongdoing but it raises questions about how sensitive close contests were to roll revisions.
Separate analyses also point to a broader pattern. According to The Indian Express, in 187 constituencies with significant deletions (5,000+ names), the BJP won or led in 119 seats. In 47 of these, deletions exceeded the margin of victory.
The findings have added fuel to an already charged post-election environment, shifting focus from just “who won” to how the electoral process unfolded. Opposition parties have raised concerns about fairness and transparency linked to SIR and the issue is likely to shape legal and political debates in the coming weeks.
Kolkata [Calcutta], India, India
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