A wave of uncertainty has gripped West Bengal as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process has left some of the state’s oldest residents struggling to reclaim their identities. From urban centres to remote rural villages, clerical discrepancies and “logical errors” have resulted in the deletion of lifelong citizens from the electoral rolls, sparking a mounting emotional and bureaucratic crisis.
In Kolkata, 87-year-old Manmatha Nath Bhowmick is grappling with the reality of being “erased” from the nation he served for decades. A migrant from East Pakistan in 1959, Bhowmick holds a valid citizenship certificate and dedicated 30 years of his life to the Kolkata Port Trust.
For the uninitiated, present-day Bangladesh was once the eastern wing of Pakistan. Known as East Pakistan from 1955 to 1971, it gained independence after breaking away from the politically dominant western wing.
Despite his long tenure as a central government employee, Bhowmick was shocked to find his name struck from the rolls while his children remained on the list. “It is a logical absurdity,” says his son, Rajarshi. “We are being forced to drag an elderly man to government offices to prove a right he has exercised for over half a century,” he adds.
Bhowmick has been forced to use his Service Pension Book as primary evidence to convince the Election Commission of India of his existence.
In the rural village of Batrigach in Cooch Behar, the situation grows more alarming. Ninety-two-year-old Jajima Bibi, who sustains herself by herding goats, worries that being struck off the voter list could cost her the old-age pension she depends on to afford vital medicines.
Despite possessing a 2006 voter ID and an updated Aadhaar card, Jajima was flagged as ‘unmapped’. The subsequent fallout has also fractured her family’s legal standing. While initially included in adjudication lists, her name vanished from the final supplementary roll.
A recent sweep under “Logical Discrepancy” notices deleted almost her entire family, including her grandson, Anikul Miya, a special needs person.
The Joka Tribunal is currently tasked with scrutinising complex cases where citizenship and residency are being questioned due to data mismatches. For citizens like Manmatha and Jajima, these judicial officers are the final line of defence against being rendered invisible by the SIR process.
More than 90 lakh names have been removed during the SIR exercise, bringing the total number of voters in West Bengal down to 6.75 crore from 7.66 crore before the revision began.
Election officials have stated that the appeal process aims to address “systemic errors”, but for the state’s most vulnerable, the burden of proof remains a heavy and exhausting toll.
– Ends
Published By:
Aprameya Rao
Published On:
Apr 14, 2026 20:04 IST
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