Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has raised questions on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process of the voter list. He said that due to deletion of names of a large number of voters and delay in disposal of appeals, BJP may have got a big advantage in the West Bengal elections. In the West Bengal Assembly elections 2026, BJP registered a historic victory and won 207 seats, while Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress got only 80 seats. After this, for the first time, BJP government was formed in the state and Shubhendu Adhikari became the Chief Minister.

Responding to the West Bengal election results, Shashi Tharoor said that about 91 lakh names were removed from the voter list in West Bengal. Of these, about 34 lakh people filed an appeal claiming that they are real and living voters and should get the right to vote. Tharoor said, ‘According to the rules, it was necessary to investigate each case separately, but before the elections, only a few hundred cases could be decided. This means that there were lakhs of people who probably could have proved to be genuine voters, but they could not vote.

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BJP’s victory margin is around 30 lakh votes

Shashi Tharoor said that BJP’s victory margin was about 30 lakh votes, which is very close to the number of pending appeals. Tharoor raised questions and said, ‘Was this a completely fair and democratic process? That’s the question I’m asking. However, he also said that he has no objection to removing the names of fake, dead, migrated or wrongly registered voters. Shashi Tharoor also mentioned Kerala elections. He said that Congress may have benefited from the SIR process in Kerala, because there were complaints of double or registration of voter names at multiple places for a long time. He alleged that CPM was an expert in such arrangements.

34 lakh appeals registered in Bengal

Shashi Tharoor said, ‘Very few appeals were received in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, but 34 lakh appeals were registered in Bengal. Most of these cases have not been heard yet. In the 2026 Kerala Assembly elections, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) ended the 10-year-old rule of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) by winning 102 seats.

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