Draft Electoral Rolls for West Bengal is out :::: Sickularism knows how to 'sing' ::::: Post-'SIR' in Bihar; BJP win was historic :::: Can Saffron party rescue "aapa land"

Of course when SIR was launched in Bihar; there were many controversies, many legal wranglings and many great speeches on Sickularism and even so-called Votechori. 

"This is just the beginning. Breakfast has just begun. There will be lunch, tea and then dinner," - BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari. 

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For Yogi Adityanath-ruled Uttar Pradesh; enumeration will continue till December 26th and the draft electoral rolls to be published on December 31.

For Left-ruled Kerala; Enumeration ends on December 18 and draft voter list to be published on December 23.

The Bihar mandate was crystal clear. The carpet underneath the feet of Sickularism and the 'gang' has been shaken. Of course Opposition parties including Congress and Trinamool Congress and populist Mamata Banerjee alleged that many of "those removed were Muslims" or belonged to social groups and communities that do not form the vote bank of the Hindutva forces led by the BJP.

Such claims have been repeatedly denied by the Election Commission and by the government on the floor of Parliament more than once.  

The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday published West Bengal’s draft electoral rolls after the completion of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), with officials indicating that the names of more than 58 lakh voters have been deleted on grounds such as death, migration and non-submission of enumeration forms.

The draft rolls are expected to contain 7,08,16,631 voters, a reduction of 58,20,898 (over 58 lakh 20 thousands) from the pre-SIR electorate of 7,66,37,529.  

The list of deleted voters has been made available on the commission’s portal at ceowestbengal.wb.gov.in/asd_sir.   

A detailed breakup released by the CEO’s office last week showed that 24,16,852 voters were marked as dead, 

19,88,076 as permanently shifted, and 

12,20,038 as missing or untraceable at their registered addresses. 

Another 1.38 lakh voters were identified as having duplicate entries, while 1,83,328 names were flagged as so-called ‘ghost’ voters. 

More than 57,000 names were deleted due to other complications detected during enumeration.

Nearly 42 lakh voter names deleted in Rajasthan electoral rolls, highest removals from Jaipur. 

The publication of the draft voter lists brings an end to the counting stage and kicks-off the next phase, which will involve submitting claims, raising objections, and holding hearings. This process is expected to continue until February 2026. 

Of course the major controversy related to electoral rolls and the SIR exercise has been in West Bengal.  

The state's ruling Trinamool Congress government, led by chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, has described SIR as a “politically motivated” process to “capture West Bengal by trickery”. 

She also alleged that the “shadow of fear and uncertainty” being created by SIR has led to panic and distress among the people. The TMC tried to spread a panic exercise and work pressure people to commit suicide. 

The Muslims - considered her captive voters after the minority community deserted the communists in 2011 - fear they will lose their citizenship. 

The Chief Minister also wrote to the EC to intervene and halt the process.

In the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament, responding to various members during a marathon debate on electoral reforms; Home minister Amit Shah has said the that BJP and the EC's exercise was only aimed at protecting India’s democracy with a policy of “detect, delete and deport”. 

“Can a country’s democracy be safe when the prime minister and chief minister are decided by illegal immigrants?” he asked. 

Essentially, SIR is a routine exercise meant to ensure that deceased, illegitimate and duplicate voters are removed from the voter register. 

Notably, in Bihar, a state with 130 million people, more than 6.5 million people were removed from the voter list. 

But there were no formal complaints.

SIR is an issue by itself.

That's one part of the story; in order to justify his 'repeated' defeats; Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has discovered the phrase Vote Chori.

But even his alliance partner National Conference, which won the polls in Jammu and Kashmir; said it is not party to such campaigns led by Rahul Gandhi and was lately backed even by her sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.  

In Kerala, the Communist party of India (Marxist)-led LDF regime has passed a resolution against SIR, condemning it as a “citizenship survey” by the backdoor. 

In neighbouring Tamil Nadu, the ruling DMK led by M K Stalin has also formally opposed the exercise.  

For Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands: 

Enumeration is continuing till December 18th and draft rolls to be released on December 23.

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Soon after the lists were published, the Trinamool Congress accused the BJP and the Election Commission of working together to target voters. 

The party claimed that calling nearly two crore voters for hearings was meant to scare people and raise doubts about their citizenship.

The BJP rejected the charge. Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, ridiculed the accusations.

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