Assembly Elections 2026:  Female Voter Count Drops by Almost 60 Lakh In A Year After SIR In Bengal

The SIR saga in Bengal continues to run into murkier waters with confusion and haze surrounding the outcome of the process even with five supplementary lists published. Even after the ‘release’ of the final draft on February 28, more than 60 lakh cases were kept ‘under adjudication’ which meant the cases were up for verification before they would be added or removed from the rolls.

Bengal’s voter count stood at 7.6 crore before the SIR process began in the state. Following the release of the ‘final’ draft on February 28, the count dropped to 6.44 crore and over 60 lakh voters under adjudication. According to numerous reports and sources, the rejection rate over the course of the adjudication process stood at over 40%, with the final numbers awaited. It was also said that people whose names are deleted can challenge the decision before appellate tribunals set up by the Kolkata High Court. However, the deletion patterns across the state have raised numerous questions on targeted removals from the rolls.

On Friday, answering a question from Trinamool MP Rachana Banerjee, law and justice minister Arjun Ram Meghwal furnished data in the Lok Sabha which revealed a stark drop in women-to-men ratio among voters in Bengal. The number of female voters in the state, according to the February 28 draft published by the ECI following the SIR exercise, stands at 3.16 crore in comparison to 3.76 crore in 2025 (according to the annual special summary revision roll), amounting to almost 60 lakh names purged over the course of a year. Again, these numbers do not include the 60 lakh names under adjudication. The number of women-voters in the state has hit the lowest since 2016.

The ratio which stood at 969 women for every 1,000 men has dropped to 964, a 14-year low in the state. The state, which has recorded a steady rise in the number of female voters as compared to male voters over the last decade and a half, has made the surging electoral force crucial in determining the turn of politics in the state. The consistent increase of female voters in the state was also reflected in the voters’ list published by the ECI in January which showed a sharp reduction in difference between male and female voters, with the latter increasing by almost 2 lakhs since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The TMC has gone all guns blazing at the BJP following Meghwal’s answer. “This is BJP's SIR. 3.73 crore women voters in 2024, gutted to 3.16 crore in 2026. The voter gender ratio has hit a 14-year low, the first fall since 2012, engineered in an election year by a party that knows it cannot survive Bengal's women voting freely,” their official handle posted on X. In her campaign rallies, Mamata Banerjee has branded the BJP as ‘anti-women’  further alleging that the BJP and the ECI have systematically targeted women and women from disadvantaged backgrounds, to dent the electorate and manoeuvre it to their favour.

For Mamata Banerjee, the female electorate has been a crucial support base, especially in semi-urban and rural areas. According to numerous commentators, a major chunk of welfare schemes under Banerjee, especially Lakshmir Bhandar, Kanyashree and Rupashree have been crucial in cementing her support among women in the state where the BJP has failed to make any stable inroads.

“BJP knows exactly who Bengal's women stand with. Not Delhi. Not their imported agenda. Not their zamindari politics that treats Bengal like a colony to be managed. Bengal's women stand with Maa, Mati, Manush, and BJP has always known it. So, they built a trap. Maiden names, marriage record gaps, “Logical discrepancies." A verification process designed to fail women, not protect them. Nari-birodhi (anti-women) in their words. Nari-birodhi in their actions,” the TMC post further read.

Addressing the issue of SIR targeting minority and women voters in the state repeatedly, Banerjee has specifically harped on the issue of women being purged from voter lists owing to change in surnames and addresses post marriage. Speaking in the Supreme Court, Banerjee had submitted that the exercise led to numerous women voters being deleted for changing surnames, maiden names and addresses after marriage owing to mismatch. 

Critics have questioned the exercise, the opacity of the adjudication process and time in hand. People are also confused at the convolution of the process questioning whether credible voter lists would be available before the state goes to polls. However commentators believe that the decline in the number of women voters and the ratio is not only a point of apprehension for Mamata Banerjee, but also a socio-political indictment for the state, and the country at large, where more glaring drops in women-to-men voter ratios have been noted in the aftermath of SIR.