Summary of this article
TMC claimed in Supreme Court that SIR deletions exceeded BJP’s victory margin in 31 West Bengal Assembly seats, citing one example of a 862-vote loss with over 5,000 deletions.
The party highlighted over 35 lakh pending appeals against deletions compared to a 32 lakh overall vote gap with BJP.
Supreme Court asked TMC/Mamata Banerjee to file a fresh plea and directed a report on pending appeals, while noting that election disputes should primarily go through election petitions.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) told the Supreme Court that deletions under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls exceeded the BJP’s victory margin in 31 Assembly seats. The claim was made on May 11, 2026, during a hearing before a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi.
Senior advocate and TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee submitted that in these 31 constituencies, the number of voters removed during the SIR adjudication process was higher than the margin by which BJP defeated TMC candidates. He cited one specific seat where a TMC candidate lost by just 862 votes while over 5,000 names were allegedly deleted. Banerjee further argued that the overall vote difference between TMC and BJP in the state was around 32 lakh, while more than 35 lakh appeals against deletions remain pending.
The Supreme Court responded by asking Mamata Banerjee and other petitioners to file a fresh, detailed application on the issue. The court noted that challenges to election results are typically handled through election petitions in the High Court, while directing the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to submit a report on pending voter inclusion appeals.
The Special Intensive Revision exercise, conducted ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls, led to the deletion of a significant number of names from West Bengal’s electoral rolls. TMC has alleged that many genuine voters were removed, materially affecting the poll outcome in closely contested seats. The Election Commission has maintained that the SIR was a legitimate exercise to clean up the rolls and remove ineligible entries.
