Political turmoil in Indian border state as nine million lose voting rights

Political turmoil in Indian border state as nine million lose voting rights8 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleSnigdhendu BhattacharyaKolkataHindustan Times via Getty ImagesOfficials verify voter details during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rollsMuhammad Daud Ali, a former Indian army technician, recently discovered that he was no longer a voter in his home state of West Bengal. His name - and those of his three children - had been struck off the electoral rolls despite valid documents, including his passport and service records. Only his wife remained on the list.Ali, 65, and his children are among nine million voters - about 12% of West Bengal's 76 million electorate - who have been removed from the 2026 rolls as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. Voting to elect a new state government will take place later this month in this eastern Indian state.Of these nine million, more than six million names were struck off as absentee or deceased voters, while the fate of another 2.7 million - including families like Ali's - remains undecided and will be determined by tribunals. Thirteen states and federally-administered territories have undergone the SIR process so far, but West Bengal is the only one where it was followed by an additional layer of special adjudication.India's Election Commission says the revision is meant to weed out duplicate or outdated entries and add genuine voters. But the exercise has been mired in controversy and faced legal challenges ever since it was first held in the state of Bihar last year. It has become particularly contentious in West Bengal, where the ruling Trinamool Congress party (TMC) is locked in a bitter standoff with the poll body.Gyanesh Kumar, the chief election commissioner, has said the revision exercise's aim is to ensure a "pure electoral roll" with no eligible voters excluded and no ineligible persons included.The tensions have been fuelled by re...