Special Intensive Revision drives record turnout in West Bengal polls
The first phase of polling in the West Bengal assembly elections on April 23 saw a voter turnout of 92.8 percent, its highest ever, surpassing the previous best of 84.3 percent in 2011. According to Election Commission data, in constituencies where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise struck the most names off the state's electoral rolls, the average turnout went up to 94.1 percent. It even eclipsed the participation rate in constituencies which saw new addition of voters, who polled at 91.8 percent, a difference of 2.3 points. The figures on polling percentage represent approximate voting trends based on data from the Election Commission's ECINET app.
The Election Commission of India undertook a revision of West Bengal's electoral rolls between November and December 2025. It maintained that the SIR process aimed to remove duplicate entries, deceased individuals and ghost voters from the registry. However, the exercise quickly ignited a fierce political controversy in the state. The ruling Trinamool Congress alleged that the deletions amounted to deliberate disenfranchisement, in many cases, selectively targeting minority voters to tilt the electoral advantage toward the BJP. Legal challenges against the mass removals reached the Supreme Court, which permitted the April polls to go ahead as scheduled. As a result, the voting eligibility of approximately 30 lakh residents across West Bengal remains unresolved.
Samserganj — a constituency with the highest voter deletions of 32 percent between the draft electoral roll and the final roll — saw a voter turnout of 96.1 percent. Lalgola, with 22.4 percent deletions, recorded a turnout of 96.4 percent.
A similar trend was observed in constituencies such as Raghunathganj, Farakka, Bhagabangola, Mothabari and Suti. Voter deletions in these areas ranged between 14 percent and 20 percent, while the polling figures were above 96 percent. Across all constituencies participating in Phase 1, the electoral roll saw a net reduction of approximately 13 lakh voters following the revision process.
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