India's Bengal vote: a clean-up of fake voters, or mass disenfranchisement?

Published May 28, 2026 · 08:00 GMT

A revision of West Bengal's electoral rolls cut over 9 million names before the BJP's historic win there. The opposition calls it voter suppression engineered for the BJP; the BJP and Election Commission call it a lawful purge of bogus entries.

The summary above is a neutral framing. Below, each side reports the same story in its own words — judge for yourself.

TMC / opposition

Mamata Banerjee's TMC and other opposition parties say the roll revision wiped out ~12% of voters in TMC strongholds, accusing the Election Commission of siding with Modi's BJP to disenfranchise genuine voters.

BJP / Election Commission

The BJP and ECI defend the Special Intensive Revision as a routine, lawful cleansing of dead, duplicate and 'illegal migrant' entries — pointing to a record 92% turnout as proof the vote was fair.

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