Mamata's Bhabanipur logs nearly 4x more voter deletions than Suvendu's Nandigram, says EC data

Kolkata, Dec 12 (PTI) Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Bhabanipur constituency has recorded one of the highest voter deletions in West Bengal, logging nearly four times more removals than Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari's Nandigram, according to constituency-wise data released by the Election Commission (EC) on Friday.

The EC released the figures a day after the deadline for submitting enumeration forms under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process ended, revealing significant variations across the state.

Data showed that Bhabanipur in south Kolkata, widely regarded as Banerjee's pocket borough, recorded 44,787 deletions from the 1,61,509 voters listed in January 2025, while Nandigram, the crucible of the anti-land acquisition movement that propelled the TMC to power in 2011 and stronghold of Adhikari, saw 10,599 deletions from 2,78,212 voters.

The commission has classified the deletions under standard categories such as deaths, relocation, untraceable addresses and duplicate entries.

Officials maintained the process followed uniform criteria statewide.

Despite the political attention on Bhabanipur, it was not the constituency with the highest number of deletions.

Among the state's 294 Assembly constituencies, the highest number of deletions occurred in north Kolkata's Chowringhee represented by TMC MLA Nayana Bandyopadhyay, which saw 74,553 voters struck off the rolls. A three-time MLA, she had won the seat by a margin of more than 44,000 votes in 2021.

Kolkata Port, represented by senior minister and Mayor Firhad Hakim, logged 63,730 deletions.

Hakim, a three-time MLA, had won the seat by a margin of around 70,000 votes, a factor that cemented his grip over the constituency.

In Tollygunge, held by minister Aroop Biswas, 35,309 names were removed.

Biswas, a four-time MLA, had retained the seat in 2021 with a margin of about 50,000 votes, underscoring his organisational control over one of Kolkata's most politically crucial belts.

In constituencies held by key BJP legislators, deletion numbers were higher than Nandigram but lower than Kolkata Port.

Asansol South, represented by Agnimitra Paul, recorded 39,202 deletions.

Paul had won the seat by a slender margin of barely 4,000 votes, making it one of the BJP's closest-fought victories in the 2021 Assembly elections.

Siliguri, represented by Shankar Ghosh, reported 31,181 deletions.

Ghosh, a former CPI(M) leader who switched to the BJP ahead of the 2021 polls, had captured the Siliguri seat with a margin of over 35,000 votes, marking one of the BJP's most significant breakthroughs in north Bengal.

District-level data showed South 24 Parganas logged the highest volume of deletions at 8,16,047.

The district is considered a bastion of TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who secured a victory margin of over 7 lakh votes from Diamond Harbour in the last Lok Sabha polls.

The lowest was in Kotulpur in Bankura, which reported 5,678 deletions.

Overall, more than 58 lakh names have been deleted in the first phase of the SIR process. The Election Commission will publish the draft electoral rolls on Tuesday.

Reacting to the figures, TMC spokesperson Krishanu Mitra said the party would scrutinise the data closely.

"If dead voters or shifted voters have been omitted, then we have no problem. But if any genuine voter is deleted, we will reply against this sinister motive democratically," he said.

Ghosh, who is BJP chief whip in West Bengal assembly said, the deletions prove why SIR was needed in West Bengal.

"This proves the amount of fake voters that has been the real strength of TMC in West Bengal," he said.

The Bhabanipur-Nandigram contrast carries added political resonance because of the bitter rivalry between Banerjee and Adhikari.

In the 2021 Assembly election, Adhikari defeated Banerjee in Nandigram by 1,956 votes, prompting her to return to the Assembly months later through a Bhabanipur bypoll, which she won by 58,832 votes.

Meanwhile, a senior official at the CEO's office had on Monday said more than 56.37 lakh voters across the state have been marked "uncollectible" during ongoing verification efforts.

These include 23.98 lakh deceased voters, 10.95 lakh untraceable voters, 19.65 lakh shifted voters, 1.32 lakh duplicate entries, and 47,832 removed under other categories. Over 7.66 crore enumeration forms have been distributed statewide.

As Bengal heads toward the 2026 Assembly polls, the emerging deletion patterns, especially in politically symbolic constituencies, are likely to fuel sharper debate between the TMC and BJP, intensifying scrutiny of the draft rolls once they are published next week. PTI SCH PNT MNB