NEW DELHI,8 April 2026 : Nadia Mondal, a homemaker from West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district, is angry because her name has been struck off the electoral roll days before the ruling Trinamool Congress and rivals Bharatiya Janata Party face-off in a critical Assembly election.
“I am a resident of Duttapukur… married 27 years ago and have been living here since. I submitted my Aadhaar and all the necessary documents during the hearing but now I find my name in the list (of deleted voters),” she said.
Voting for this election will be held over two phases – 152 seats will vote on April 23 and 142 on April 29. Results will be declared on May 4.
Mondal isn’t the only one. Bagbul Mallik, a small-business owner from Deganga village, 21km away, said he too had submitted all the documents, but nonetheless was removed. Surprisingly, his family remains on the roll.
“Many voters in my village have also been removed from the list and we are expecting that this time we won’t be able to cast our votes,” he said.
Late Monday the Election Commission released a 12th and final supplementary list with names of voters restored to the electoral roll after successfully challenging their deletion.
But a total of 60.06 lakh voters had been struck off after revision of the list.
Of these 32.6 lakh have been cleared as valid voters while 27.1 have been deemed ‘ineligible’ and removed. They can appeal before tribunals set up under the supervision of the Calcutta High Court, though time is running out. The first phase of voting is scheduled for April 23.
Overall, an estimated 90.8 lakh men and women have been removed from Bengal’s electoral roll after the Election Commission-ordered Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, exercise.
This is the second highest of any state so far; the highest was around 97 lakh names in Tamil Nadu, which will also hold an election this month.
Protests broke out in North 24 Parganas’ Basirhat area Monday on this issue and last week seven judicial officers – ruling on appeals by deleted voters – were held hostage in Malda district, triggering a fresh squabble between the Trinamool, the BJP, and Election Commission.
Picture credit social media
