The Special Intensive Review (SIR) process has ended after the release of the final supplementary list in West Bengal. After a continuous increase in the number of voters since 2011, this is the first time that the number of voters in the state has declined. 2011 was the year when 34 years of Left Front rule ended and the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government came to power.

According to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal, in the year of change of power in 2011, assembly elections were held in the state with approximately 5.62 crore voters.

When Lok Sabha elections were held in 2014, the number of voters in West Bengal increased to approximately 6.27 crore. In fact, during this time, the major opposition parties of West Bengal alleged for the first time that new or first-time voters were included in the voter list but the names of “dead”, ‘transferred’, ‘missing’ and ‘duplicate’ voters were not removed from the list.

Then in 2016, when assembly elections were held in the state, in which the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal was returned to the House with a bigger majority than before, the number of voters increased to about 6.58 crore.

In 2019, the year of the Lok Sabha elections, the number of voters in West Bengal increased to 6.98 crore, which later increased to 7.33 crore in 2021, returning the Trinamool Congress to power in the state for the third consecutive time.

Ultimately, during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the number of voters in West Bengal increased to 7.60 crore.

According to the data available from the office of the CEO, this trend shows that there has been a continuous increase in the number of voters between 2011 and 2024 and there has not been a decline in this trend even once.

However, after the SIR, which began in November last year and was finally completed this month, the total number of voters in West Bengal has come down to 6.75 crore.

Election analysts believe that the steady increase in the number of voters from 2011 to 2024 reflects where new and first-time voters continued to add to the voter list. However, “dead”, “transferred”, “missing” and “duplicate” voters were not removed from the list in parallel.