‘Math isn’t mathing’: IIM Calcutta Prof shares shocking SIR voter deletion story ahead of West Bengal elections

Kolkata: Nandita Roy has been voting in elections since 2009. However, the 39-year-old faculty member at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kolkata, is now worried that she may not be able to vote in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections.

Roy’s name, along with those of lakhs of others, has been removed from the electoral rolls of West Bengal as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise conducted by the Election Commission of India.

On 14 April, Roy was among the hundreds of residents of Bengal who assembled at a mass gathering against SIR deletions in Kolkata’s Park Circus. The protest was organised by Voteadhikar Rokkha Mancha, a citizens’ movement against the exclusion of names.

Roy, whose father and grandfather have served in the Indian Air Force, spoke with LiveMint after her speech at the protest.

Roy said her name was in the draft electoral rolls published on 16 December. But in the preliminary final list published after SIR on 28 February, she found her name in the ‘under adjudication’ category, she said.

And finally, on 31 March, Roy found that her name had been deleted from the supplementary list. Roy is a voter in the Rashbehari Assembly constituency in Kolkata South, which votes on 29 April.

“It is certainly not about one vote. It is about the right that theconstitution gives us. I am still considering myself privileged that I am able to speak with you or even reaching out to election officials. Imagine what the 90 lakh people whose names have been deleted must be going through. Most of these would not even know the process,” Roy, an assistant professor at IIM Calcutta, told LiveMint at the protest site.

91 lakh voters deleted

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. The burden of proof is on the voters.

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.

The Election Commission of India (ECI)’s SIR of electoral rolls has been conducted in 13 states and Union Territories. In West Bengal, however, terms such as ‘adjudication’, ‘logical discrepancies’ and ‘voter tribunals’ have turned the process more controversial. Even the Supreme Court has emphasised the need for a "robust appellate mechanism" to consider appeals filed by persons who have been deleted from the electoral rolls.

All political parties in West Bengal, except the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had opposed the SIR. The EC has called it an exercise to clean up the voter list. The BJP, on its part, insists that the process was a drive to sanitise the electoral rolls and remove “illegal infiltrators” from Bangladesh.

Who is Nandita Roy?

Born in Kolkata in 1987, Roy attended GD Birla and Assembly of God Church School in the city. She did her Bachelor's and Master's in English Literature from Jadavpur University before completing her PhD from the same university in 2017. She started teaching communication at IIM Lucknow in 2018 and shifted to IIM Calcutta in 2021.

Roy says her father and grandfather were in the Indian Air Force (IAF). She doesn’t want to reveal their names as both have passed away. Roy says she has already submitted her appeal for inclusion in the electoral rolls at the office of the district electoral officer (DEO) of Calcutta South, on 8 April.

A voter must apply to have their name included on the list within 15 days of the individual's rejection. Offline appeals are submitted at the DEO office, which forwards them to the tribunals for hearing.

“Voting is just two weeks away. There are lakhs of application against the SIR deletion. The pace is very slow. There is no way I see myself voting in the elections this time,” says Roy, who said that the election officials (BLO) had advised her to fill Form 6 so she could be enrolled as a fresh voter.

“I have been voting since 2009 and the BLO wants me to enroll as a fresh voter. Isn’t that illegal,” Roy said.

“Voting is my right as it is for 91 lakh other people whose names have been removed.”

‘Math isn't mathing’

Roy said she completed all necessary formalities mandated by the poll panel for the SIR exercise, and yet her name was deleted.

“I gave proof of birth. My grandfather’s was in the 2002 electoral roll. My father’s name was not on the 2002 rolls,” she said.

Roy was earlier a voter in Jadavpur. Later, she shifted to the Rashbehari constituency. When Roy contacted the BLO, he told her that her phone was out of reach and that she was, therefore, marked untraceable.

“I do not understand this process of marking people untraceable, if you just miss a phone call. Does that mean you disenfranchise a genuine voter? Like my students would say, the math isn't mathing,” said Roy, who teaches Business Ethics and Communication at IIM Kolkata.

"The math isn't mathing" is a popular, humorous slang phrase used to describe a situation where numbers, facts, or situations do not make sense, add up, or are completely wrong.

“I have all the documents that prove that I am a genuine voter. Passport, Aadhaar, and the election card of previous elections. What else do you need to avail a right?” she asks.

On paper, the Election Commission is supposed to add voters, Roy said. "But in SIR they have excluded voters. That too days ahead of polls. My biggest issue with the SIR process is if it is such an important exercise why is this being done so hurriedly? They could have waited till elections and done it in a better way,” she said.

West Bengal votes in two phases – 23 and 29 April. Votes will be counted on 4 May.