63% of 91 lakh votes deleted in SIR are Bengali Hindus: Abhishek Banerjee makes big claim ahead of assembly elections

Senior Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee on Friday attacked Union Home Minister Amit Shah for repeatedly raising the issue of infiltration in his poll speeches in West Bengal. Banerjee also claimed that of the 91 lakh voters deleted during the course of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, around 63 per cent are Hindus.

“In the first list released in February, 58 lakh names were deleted, then around 6 lakh more names were deleted. Later, from the adjudication list, around 27 lakh names were deleted. In total, around 90 lakh names were deleted, out of which 63% are Bengali Hindus,” Banerjee said addressing a press conference hours after Union Home Minister Amit Shah released Bharatiya Janata Party's 15-point manifesto for the upcoming West Bengal Assembly Elections.

“BJP has released a 15-point document which they have called “Bhoroshar Shopoth.” I expected the Home Minister to first apologise to the people of Bengal for the way they have been tortured in the name of SIR over the last six months. He spoke of chronology and of “detect,” “delete,” and “deport.” According to him, SIR is the first step of that “detect” process,” Banerjee said.

Releasing the manifesto earlier, Shah said the saffron party's government in West Bengal would implement a ‘detect. delete and deport’ policy against infiltrators. West Bengal is voting to elect a new government in two phases – 23 and 29 April. The votes will be counted on 4 March.

Overall, 91 lakh names have been deleted from West Bengal's voter list since the SIR began. The state's voters have shrunk almost 12%, from 7.66 crore electors in October 2025 to 6.75 crore now. West Bengal had 7.34 crore eligible voters in the 2021 assembly elections.

According to an internal analysis of booth-level EC numbers before and after the SIR by Trinamool Congress, of the 91 lakh deletions, 57.47 lakh (63.4%) are Hindus and 31.1 lakh (34.3%) are Muslims. Mint has not been able to verify these numbers, however.

BJP’s torture of Bengalis is not new: Abhishek

So, Muslim voters account for more than a third of the 91 lakh names removed from West Bengal’s electoral rolls in the SIR process, disproportionately higher than their community's share in the state’s population, as per this analysis.

This is the same party that in Assam willfully put around 13 lakh Hindu Bengalis out of 19 lakh people into detention camps in the name of NRC, Banerjee alleged

“They targeted them to push them back to Bangladesh. BJP’s alleged torture of Bengalis is nothing new. We have been witnessing this over the past year, particularly in BJP-ruled states, where Bengalis have been targeted for speaking Bengali or even for their food habits. In fact, Assam’s CM Himanta Biswa Sarma had openly stated that if anyone speaks in Bengali, they should be imprisoned. Leaders who have made such remarks have instead been honoured by the BJP. Given this repeated humiliation, I expected an apology first,” Banerjee said.

On 9 April, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused the BJP of deleting names of over 90 lakh people from the voter lists to grab power in the state and asserted that her party will win the upcoming elections.

"You deleted names of over 90 lakh people to grab power in Bengal, but we will win," she said, addressing a public rally at Minakhan in North 24 Parganas, while attacking the BJP over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state.

'Hindus being intimidated': PM Modi

Mamata's remarks came hours after, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a sharp attack on the ruling Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC), accusing it of fostering an atmosphere of fear and intimidation, particularly targeting Hindus.

Addressing a public rally in Asansol PM Modi alleged that there was a time when “red posters” were used to threaten Hindus with violence, and claimed that similar tactics were being repeated under the TMC’s rule.

“Today, the TMC is doing exactly the same; once again, Hindus are being intimidated in the name of a specific community,” he said.

Abhishek Banerjee also asked Shah to clarify whether former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has been given shelter by the BJP-led Centre, should be termed an infiltrator.

"If we talk about infiltration, what is the status of deposed Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina who has been staying in India for the past one and a half years? Is she a Bangladeshi infiltrator?" he said in the press meet.

What happened in the 2021 assembly elections?

The 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly elections were held in eight phases between 27 March and 29 April to elect all 294 members of the Legislative Assembly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The incumbent Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee won the election by a landslide, despite opinion polls generally predicting a close race against the BJP, which became the official opposition with 77 seats.

For the first time in the history of Bengal, no members from the Congress and the Communist Party were elected.

(With agency inputs)