Top News

The data regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list of West Bengal has once again raised questions. Despite more than 38 lakh appeals being filed, only about 82 thousand cases have been disposed of so far. The special thing is that in the cases on which the decision was taken, the names of more than 91 percent people were again added to the voter list.

Tezzbuzz Desk– After the major changes in the voter list under SIR in West Bengal, the speed of disposal of appeals has now become a topic of discussion. A total of 38,10,620 appeals were filed before the state appellate tribunal till August 7, 2026. Of these, only 82,782 cases have been decided so far. This means that about 97.83 percent of the cases are still pending.

In the cases on which hearing has been completed so far, it was decided to include the names of 75,443 people in the voter list again. Whereas in 7,339 cases the decision to remove names was upheld. That is, in the cases that were settled, about 91.13 percent of the decisions were in favor of adding back the voter's name.

If we look at the district wise figures, the maximum number of appeals of 7,47,305 have been filed in Murshidabad. However, against such a large number, only 487 cases were disposed of. Of these, names of 434 people were added back, while in 53 cases the decision to remove names remained intact.

5,31,149 appeals were filed in Malda. So far, 1,471 cases have been decided and in all the cases it has been decided to add the names of the concerned people to the voter list. In North 24 Parganas, 3,58,872 appeals were received, but only 277 cases were decided and names were added again in all these cases.

3,21,332 appeals were filed in South 24 Parganas. So far, names of 20,107 people have been added back to the voter list, while in 24 cases the decision to remove names has been taken. This district has been at the forefront in terms of re-adding names.

The figures of some districts especially attract attention. In the cases decided so far in Malda and North 24 Parganas, no decision has been taken to remove even a single name. During the hearing in the Supreme Court regarding Jalpaiguri, senior advocate Gopal Shankaranarayan had said that after the appeal, names of 665 people were added to the voter list and not a single name was excluded.

A total of 50,712 appeals were filed in Darjeeling. Of these, 160 cases were settled. Names of 159 people were added again, while in only one case it was decided to remove the name.

There has also been a significant decrease in the total number of voters in the voter list during SIR. There were 7,60,10,006 voters registered in West Bengal in the voter list of 2024. In the final SIR list released on 28 February 2026, this number came down to 6,44,52,609. That means the total number of voters decreased by 1,15,57,397, which is a decline of about 15.21 percent.

Talking about the districts, the maximum number of voters decreased by 14,44,123 in North 24 Parganas. After this, a shortage of 13,27,896 voters was recorded in Murshidabad and 12,85,364 voters in South 24 Parganas. The biggest decline in percentage terms was in Kolkata South, where the number of voters decreased by about 32.29 percent. Malda also recorded a huge decline of 31.69 percent.

On the contrary, the number of voters decreased the least in Purba Medinipur by 3.97 percent. The decline was 4.64 percent in Bankura and 5.75 percent in Paschim Medinipur.

However, it is not correct to directly link the 38 lakh appeals with the 38 lakh voters whose names were removed from the voter list. During the hearing in the Supreme Court, it was told that about 31 lakh appeals are to such cases, in which objection has been raised to the inclusion of another person's name in the voter list. At the same time, about 7 lakh appeals have been filed by those people whose names were left out of the list and they are demanding to add them again.

Congress leader and petitioner Prosenjit Bose has also raised questions regarding SIR. He says that after investigation, about 27 lakh voters were considered 'not eligible', but out of these, only about 7 lakh people appealed themselves. He claims that a large number of other appeals have been filed by the Election Commission or other objectors.

Now the biggest question is regarding more than 37 lakh pending appeals. The Supreme Court has also said that the appeals of those whose names have been excluded from the voter list should be heard in due time. The court has sought complete details of the pending cases from the Election Commission and the steps being taken for their early disposal. In such a situation, in the coming days, the action of the tribunal and the results of these appeals can further clarify the picture regarding the voter list of Bengal.