Daijiworld Media Network - Kolkata
Kolkata, Dec 17: Alarmed by the deletion of nearly 45,000 voters from the draft electoral rolls in Bhabanipur, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Assembly constituency, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leadership has decided to instruct its booth-level agents to carry out fresh door-to-door verification of the deleted names, party sources said.
According to Election Commission data, Bhabanipur had 2,06,295 voters as of January 2025. Following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, the draft rolls now list only 1,61,509 electors, indicating that 44,787 names — around 21.7 per cent of the electorate — have been struck off.
The Election Commission on Tuesday published West Bengal’s draft electoral rolls after completing the SIR, during which more than 58 lakh voters were deleted across the state on grounds such as death, migration and non-availability. The revision comes ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections, with voter profiles also redrawn across districts and border areas.
The large-scale deletions have left the TMC leadership deeply dissatisfied, particularly over voters being marked as “dead”, “shifted” or “absent”.
“The party leadership has made it clear that no valid voter’s name should be deleted under any circumstances. Every deleted name must be physically verified,” a senior TMC source said.
Bhabanipur comprises wards 63, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 77 and 82 under the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. Sources said wards 70, 72 and 77 witnessed especially high deletions, with ward 77 — a minority-dominated area — flagged for special scrutiny.
The constituency, a densely populated urban pocket, also has a significant number of residents originally from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha, adding to concerns over voters being wrongly marked as migrants.
With the claims and objections process expected to begin soon, the TMC has directed local leaders to stand by affected voters during verification. The party has also asked its local units to continue operating neighbourhood-level ‘May I Help You’ camps to assist residents with documentation, form-filling and hearings, and to visit homes wherever required.
The developments in Bhabanipur are part of a broader trend in south Kolkata. Draft rolls indicate that four politically significant Assembly segments — Bhabanipur, Kolkata Port, Ballygunge and Rashbehari — together saw over 2.16 lakh voter deletions, accounting for nearly 24 per cent of their combined electorate.
When the SIR process began, these four constituencies together had around 9.07 lakh voters, party sources added.