Opposition parties, civil rights groups come together to save voters’ rights in West Bengal

The names of over 91 lakh electors were deleted from the electoral rolls, accounting for a drop of about 13% in the number of voters in the State from before the start of the exercise. File

Calling for people whose names were unlawfully deleted from the electoral rolls during the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise to raise their voices, several opposition parties and civil rights groups on Saturday (November 14, 2026), announced a joint platform in West Bengal to save the rights of all voters.

The members of the ‘Sara Bangla Votadhikar Rokkha Jukto Moncho’ (All Bengal Joint Forum to Safeguard Voting Rights) also invited all opposition political parties to attend a mass convention in Kolkata on November 21.

“We are inviting all the opposition political parties to attend the convention. The voters whose names have been unlawfully deleted from the electoral rolls are also being called upon to raise their voices through this platform to protect their constitutional right,” said economist and Congress leader Prasenjit Bose.

Making an official announcement of the platform at a press conference on Saturday (November 14, 2026), its members said representatives of various parties, including the Congress, Mamata All India Trinamool Congress, Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM), along with civil rights groups like Bharat Jodo, Nagarik Rakkha Mancha, and Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), will be present at the November 21 convention. People whose names have been deleted in the Special Intensive Revision will also join, they said.

Mr. Bose said the united platform will raise six major questions to the Election Commission of India (ECI). “We want to know how long it will take the tribunals to dispose of lakhs of appeals pending before them. The State Election Commission must answer whether all the 22 lakh voters, who appealed to the tribunal for inclusion of their names, will be deprived of their voting rights in the upcoming municipality and panchayat elections,” he said.

The SIR process in West Bengal was held from October 2025 to February 2026, just before the Assembly election, which saw the Bharatiya Janata Party come to power in the State for the first time. The names of over 91 lakh electors were deleted from the electoral rolls, accounting for a drop of about 13% in the number of voters in the State from before the start of the exercise.

According to an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court by the ECI in September, of the 27 lakh electors excluded from the electoral rolls on the ground of ‘logical discrepancies’, 22 lakh have filed appeals before the tribunal challenging the decision. The ECI’s affidavit added that 16.10 lakh appeals have also been filed against inclusions during the SIR. This puts the total number of appeals pending before the SIR tribunals at 38 lakh.

The new platform alleged that the applications for inclusion of 16 lakh names were generated by former Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agrawal and demanded clarification on the appeals. It also sought information from the ECI on the number of eligible voters whose names have so far been restored in the electoral roll through Form 6 (used for inclusion of new voters) during the ongoing special summary revision (SSR).

“We have found that the former Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Manoj Agrawal, generated these applications against 16 lakh names. We want to know who are these people, why these applications have been issued against their names despite being included in the voters’ lists in the SIR. Do they belong to any specific community or any particular region? How have their names been chosen?” asked retired Indian Administrative Service officer and former Rajya Sabha member Jawhar Sircar.

He said that the former CEO will be ‘liable to a criminal prosecution’ if he fails to give a suitable reply to these questions as it will make it clear that something was wrong with the SIR exercise in the State.

Social activist Abhik Saha also demanded that the Union government revoke the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, which provided for a Union Minister to replace the Chief Justice of India in the selection committee for the poll officials also comprising the Prime Minister and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

Bengal / Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls / politics