Tezzbuzz Desk: After the 2026 assembly elections in West Bengal, the controversy regarding SIR i.e. Special Intensive Review is deepening. During the hearing held in the Supreme Court on Tuesday, the question also arose that if names have been wrongly removed from the voter list on a large scale and it has affected the election results, then can re-election be ordered.
During the hearing, senior advocate Gopal Shankaranarayanan, appearing for the petitioner, presented the data related to the decisions of the tribunal before the court. According to him, till now the decision has been taken in about 83 thousand cases related to SIR. In about 75 thousand cases, deletion of voters' names was considered wrong. That is, in about 90 percent of the cases the decision to remove the name was not found correct.
The total number of SIR related cases in Bengal is said to be around 38 lakh. Of these, about 31 lakh cases have been filed by people whose names have been removed from the voter list, while about 7 lakh cases are related to people who have appealed to keep their names in the list. At present, the decision has come only in very few cases as compared to the total cases.
How much impact on 31 assembly seats?
The biggest political impact of the SIR controversy is said to be on those seats where the victory margin is less than the number of names removed from the voter list. According to Trinamool Congress MP and senior lawyer Kalyan Banerjee, there are 31 such assembly seats. These include seats like Bali, Hemtabad and Satgachia.
TMC claims that a large number of voters whose names were removed during SIR were its supporters. The party says that if these voters had got a chance to vote, the results of many seats could have changed.
Trinamool has also put forward the data that BJP got about 2 crore 93 lakh votes in the assembly elections, while TMC got about 2 crore 60 lakh votes. The difference of votes between the two parties is said to be around 30 lakh. In such a situation, the figure of 38 lakh cases related to SIR becomes very important politically.
What happened on re-election in Supreme Court?
During the hearing, a bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant asked whether the Supreme Court could direct fresh elections. On this the court said that this issue can be considered and the concerned party was asked to file the application first.
Giving an example, Justice Joymal Bagchi said that if the margin of victory in a seat is 50 votes and names of 100 voters have been deleted, if in the tribunal 70 of these names are found to have been wrongly deleted, then it can have a direct impact on the election result.
However, the Supreme Court has not yet given any order to hold re-elections in Bengal. It is the responsibility of the Election Commission to conduct elections under Article 324 of the Constitution. Whereas Article 142 gives wide powers to the Supreme Court for complete justice. Now it remains to be seen what further stand the court takes in matters related to SIR.
Will there be re-elections in Bengal?
It is too early to say this at this time. Currently, only the initial decisions in SIR related cases and their possible electoral impact are being debated. The claim of wrongly deleting 90 per cent of names in 83 thousand cases is certainly serious, but the situation will become clear only after the final results of the entire 38 lakh cases are known.
That is, at present there has been no announcement of re-election in Bengal, but if a large number of wrongful removal of names is proved and it has a direct impact on the election results, then this matter can be very important.