West Bengal Assembly Elections | Issues of anti-incumbency, corruption take back seat as SIR recasts polls as identity battle

Kolkata: What was shaping up as an election around corruption, jobs and anti-incumbency issues in West Bengal has suddenly turned into a battle over identity and citizenship after the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls deleted over 91 lakh names, changing not just the state's electoral arithmetic but the emotional vocabulary of its campaign.

The mood changed dramatically after the SIR deletions reduced the electorate by nearly 12 per cent.

Political parties estimate that of the over 91 lakh names removed—though the Election Commission has not released any religious break-up - around 31 lakh are Muslims, and the remaining 61 lakh are Hindus, giving the exercise a communal and political edge.

Till a few months ago, the BJP wanted the assembly election to revolve around the TMC’s “15-years of misrule,” jobs scam, women's safety, unemployment, and alleged TMC’s minority appeasement.

The TMC, in turn, was preparing to defend 'Lakshmir Bhandar', a financial assistance scheme for women, 'Duare Sarkar' (government at doorstep), welfare delivery, roads and rural infrastructure, wrapping them in the larger plank of Bengali 'asmita' (pride).

Those issues have not disappeared. But they no longer dominate the campaign. Just days before the first phase of the assembly polls on April 23, the most politically charged words in Bengal are not corruption, jobs or welfare. They are "deleted names", "citizenship", "foreigner", "infiltrator", and "bogus voter".

The question increasingly animating the election is not whether the TMC governed well or badly, or whether the BJP can offer better governance. It is whether the state recognises a person, who has voted for decades, as an elector or not.

Political analyst Suman Bhattacharya said the SIR had altered the axis of the election.

"Till November last year, this looked like a classic anti-incumbency election against the TMC. Now the question is who is a genuine voter and whose name has been deleted from the voter list. The election is now a contest between the arithmetic of deletions and the emotion they have generated," he said.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has recalibrated her campaign in the last one month. At rally after rally, she now speaks of "rights", "identity", and "constitutional protection".

No longer content with projecting herself merely as the defender of welfare and Bengali pride, Banerjee is now positioning herself as the protector of those who fear exclusion from the electoral roll.

"This election is no longer only about winning or losing. It is about saving the names, rights and dignity of people who have suddenly been told they may not belong," TMC leader Jaiprakash Majumdar said.

The TMC's new political line is blunt: if your name disappears from the roll, your citizenship comes under question.

For the BJP, the SIR has given a sharper political vocabulary to an argument it has long made -- that Bengal's electoral rolls contain "fake voters," illegal Bangladeshi migrants and infiltrators allegedly protected by the TMC.

"The earlier campaign was centred on corruption and unemployment. Those issues remain. But SIR has brought the focus back to infiltration. Genuine Hindu refugees have nothing to fear. Only bogus names and infiltrators are being removed," BJP leader Debjit Sarkar said.

The result is that the election is now being fought not merely over governance but over the definition of citizenship itself.

The Left Front said both the BJP and the TMC have found in the SIR a convenient way to move the conversation away from unemployment, inflation and corruption.

"The real issues of jobs, price rise and the collapse of institutions have not disappeared. But identity produces sharper fear and deeper polarisation. That is why both sides are talking less about employment and more about who is an outsider," CPI (M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said.

Yet on the ground, it is clear which issue has overtaken all others.

The school jobs scam still resonates in rural and semi-urban Bengal. Unemployment and corruption still worry young and middle-class voters. But in tea stalls, local clubs, market crossings and village squares across the state, the conversation now returns again and again to one question: whose name has disappeared? The phrase "deleted names" has become the emotional centre of the campaign. The sharpest impact is visible in districts where identity has always carried electoral weight.

In the Matua belt of Nadia and North 24 Parganas, the campaign has acquired an edge of anxiety. For years, the BJP's appeal there rested on its promise of citizenship through the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. The TMC countered with welfare, local organisation and the charge that the BJP was using refugees only as a political slogan.

The new fear among Matua families is: after voting for decades, will they still remain on the rolls? TMC leader Jyotipriya Mallick claimed the SIR had created "panic" among refugee families. The BJP rejected that charge and said the exercise, in fact, separated genuine refugees from illegal infiltrators.

In minority-dominated districts such as Murshidabad, Malda and South 24 Parganas, the political mood is different but equally charged. There, words such as "deleted voter" and "fake voter" are beginning to dominate political conversations.

The BJP said that the SIR has exposed Muslim infiltrators allegedly sheltered by the ruling party. The TMC, however, portrayed the revision as a deliberate attempt to target Bengali-speaking Muslims.

The same anxiety is now visible even in middle-class areas of Kolkata, such as Bhabanipur, Ballygunge and New Town. Conversations in housing complexes and slums increasingly revolve around whether migrant tenants, domestic workers and even long-settled families could find themselves excluded.

Political scientist Maidul Islam said the election had moved from a debate over governance to a debate over recognition.

"The earlier question was whether the TMC delivered or whether the BJP could defeat Mamata Banerjee. The new question is: will I remain a voter? That is what makes the SIR different from other issues in polls," he said.