SIR 2.0 | West Bengal draft rolls 'puncture' BJP's '1 crore Rohingyas' claim as 'ghost voters' at 1.83 lakh: TMC

Kolkata: The ruling Trinamool Congress on said that West Bengal's draft electoral rolls published on Tuesday under the EC's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) have sharply undercut BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari's claim that the state hosts "one crore Rohingyas and Bangladeshis", with the number of voters identified as 'fake' or 'ghost' pegged at 1,83,328.

The draft rolls, released after a month of enumeration, verification and scrutiny ahead of the 2026 assembly elections, detailed deletions on grounds ranging from death and permanent migration to duplication and non-submission of enumeration forms.

While over 58 lakh names have been removed, the EC's categorisation shows that the count of 'fake' voters falls far short of the BJP leader's repeated claims.

Adhikari had earlier alleged that illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya immigrants were present in large numbers in West Bengal and had influenced electoral outcomes in the past. He had urged the EC to take decisive action against such voters.

The draft rolls, however, show no numerical basis for the claim of one crore illegal voters. The figure of 1.83 lakh 'ghost' voters, officials said, represents cases flagged during the SIR process after field verification.

The TMC, backed by data, seized on the opportunity to mount a sharp counter-offensive, accusing the leader of the opposition in the state assembly of disseminating "misinformation".

TMC spokesperson Krishanu Mitra said, "In the draft rolls, around 58 lakh voters have been deleted. As per BSF data, around 4,000 people have crossed back into Bangladesh through the Hakimpur border. What we are hearing is that in nearly 80 per cent Muslim-dominated constituencies, the average deletion rate is 0.6 per cent, while in Matua-dominated regions the average deletion rate is around 9 per cent."

"The state's overall deletion rate is around 4 per cent. If you exclude deaths, who are the remaining deleted voters? Through which borders did they leave?" he asked.

The party has maintained that there are no Rohingya voters in West Bengal and alleged that the narrative of mass infiltration was being politically manufactured in the run-up to elections.

The BJP dismissed the allegations, with Adhikari mocking the charge and remarking, "This is just the beginning. Breakfast has just begun. There will be lunch, tea and then dinner."

While he refrained from giving fresh numbers on deletions, Adhikari said he would speak after the final rolls are published on February 14, as per the commission's schedule.

The publication of the draft rolls has coincided with heightened political sparring over alleged cross-border movement, particularly in parts of North 24 Parganas bordering Bangladesh.

A steady trickle of undocumented Bangladeshis returning through the Hakimpur and Bongaon borders has emerged as a fresh flashpoint, sharpening BJP-TMC hostilities over infiltration, contested voter rolls and the EC's high-stakes SIR exercise months before the polls.

Local residents and security personnel in the Bongaon border areas said that since early November, when the SIR process gathered pace, there have been instances of undocumented immigrants attempting to walk back into Bangladesh through narrow mud tracks and unfenced stretches.

While the numbers involved are small, the visuals have acquired outsized political resonance.

What began as a quiet and largely unnoticed reverse movement has now been turned into a symbolic spectacle, with both parties using it to reinforce rival narratives -- the BJP pointing to infiltration concerns and the TMC arguing that the scale is being exaggerated far beyond the data.

With the 2026 assembly elections on the horizon, the battle over numbers -- who was deleted, why, and what it signifies -- is expected to intensify, as voter data becomes yet another arena for political contestation in the state.