For 6.1 million “suspect” voters, getting on the electoral roll is a race against time

New Delhi: Around 6 million voters in West Bengal have been classified as “suspicious” by the Election Commission and their cases have been sent to a judicial officer appointed by the Calcutta High Court for adjudication. This is consistent with Supreme CourtThe directive was issued on February 20. Since the state’s assembly elections are likely to be announced in the second half of March, it means it will be a race against time to include “suspicious” voters in the electoral rolls.Sources said the final electorate in Bengal was around Rs 64 crore, a total decrease of Rs 12 crore (15.9%) since October 27, 2025. Among them, about 6.18 million people were deleted due to death, transfer, relocation and registration in multiple places, and another 6 million people were listed as “suspicious” voters to be judged.The cases of these “suspicious” voters will be added back to the national register through a supplementary list to be published later, after approval by a court-appointed judicial officer. Until then, these voters will not be eligible to vote in any election.A senior Election Commission official told TOI that most of these “suspicious” voters could be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. “Despite strong resistance, Bangladesh’s SIR exercise was a resounding success,” another EU official said.As per rules, the electoral rolls of states are frozen 10 days before the last date for nominations for Lok Sabha or Assembly elections. Therefore, only those “suspicious” voters whose cases are disposed of within the stipulated period will be able to vote in the upcoming Bengal Assembly elections.It remains to be seen how long it will take judicial officials to deal with the cases of 6 million “suspicious” voters in West Bengal. Since 1997, thousands of “doubtful” or “D” voters in Assam have been classified as “doubtful” or “D” voters and not allowed to vote, subject to adjudication by foreigners tribunals for decades. Only after a court declares “D” voters to be bona fide citizens can they vote. If deemed aliens, they will be sent to a detention center and deportation proceedings will begin.Officials appointed by Bangladesh’s judiciary must now do the same to those classified as “suspicious” voters under SIR, ostensibly because they are Bangladeshis. Judicial officials will therefore effectively act like foreigners’ tribunals, examining and confirming the citizenship status of “suspicious” voters before restoring their voting rights.When the SIR exercise begins on October 27, 2025, the electorate of Bengal is Rs 77 crore. The draft list released on December 16, 2025 showed that the number of voters after deleting 58.2 lakh people was Rs 70.8 crore. The final electoral list released on Saturday listed 6.40 crore voters, with a net deletion of 3.60 lakh voters since the draft was released.