On 4th May, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wrote history in West Bengal by defeating Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) on its home turf. BJP won 208 out of 296 seats in the State Assembly Elections after a historic 91% voting during polls held in two phases. As the results started to come in on Monday, the opposition and left liberals started blaming the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in the state for TMC’s defeat.
However, the numbers tell a completely different story. In the 20 Assembly seats that recorded the highest number of voter deletions after adjudication, Mamata Banerjee’s party won 13, while the BJP won six of them and Congress managed to grab one.
These numbers are significant, as the narrative on social media projected the ECI as the villain behind TMC’s poor performance.
Opposition and the left liberals targeted the Election Commission after the results
Throughout the day, sections of the opposition and the usual left liberal ecosystem began attacking the Election Commission and the SIR process.
TMC chief and now-defeated caretaker CM of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, cried foul and claimed that BJP stole 100 seats in West Bengal.
Leader of Opposition and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi followed the suit and supported her claim of BJP “stealing” 100 seats from TMC in Bengal with the support of the Election Commission.
Assam and Bengal are clear cases of the election being stolen by the BJP with the support of the EC.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 4, 2026
We agree with Mamata ji. More than 100 seats were stolen in Bengal.
We have seen this playbook before:
Madhya Pradesh.
Haryana.
Maharashtra.
Lok Sabha 2024 etc
चुनाव चोरी,…
Controversial RJ of Radio Mirchi, Sayema, posted on social media platform X, “Election Commission won”, hinting that it was the ECI that led to the BJP’s win.
Election Commission won.
— Sayema (@_sayema) May 4, 2026
Propagandist posing as journalist, Arfa Khanum Sherwani of The Wire, sarcastically congratulated the ECI for conducting “the most free and fair elections in the history of independent India”, again blaming the agency for TMC’s performance. However, she completely ignored the fact that the numbers are not in favour of the narrative.
Congratulations to the Election Commision of India for conducting the most free and fair elections in the history of independent India. https://t.co/m0xpBjjTP5
— Arfa Khanum Sherwani (@khanumarfa) May 4, 2026
Rajdeep Sardesai, journalist and husband of former journalist turned TMC MP Sagarika Ghose, shared a video from India Today where Swaraj India’s co-founder Yogendra Yadav claimed that 27 lakh people were wrongfully denied voting rights and questioned how six lakh votes were added after publication of the final list.
Did the SIR deletions have an impact on Bengal verdict? @_YogendraYadav and @SudhanshuTrived join the debate. Listen in: https://t.co/apB0FRimYW
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) May 4, 2026
AAP leader Sanjay Singh too attacked the ECI and claimed 27 lakh voters had been deprived of their franchise.
ED, CBI, चुनाव आयोग, ढाई लाख केंद्रीय सुरक्षा बल, चुनाव में हज़ारों करोड़ खर्च करना, DGP CS DM SP को हटाना, SIR के जरिये 27 लाख मतदाताओं को मताधिकार से वंचित रखना।
— Sanjay Singh AAP (@SanjayAzadSln) May 4, 2026
फिर TMC को हराकर मोदी और गोदी मीडिया द्वारा ढोल पीटना।
अगर ये लोकशाही है तो फिर तानाशाही क्या है? pic.twitter.com/hzstJIcDB7
However, the actual seat-wise numbers contradict the claims that deletions under SIR simply cost the TMC the election.
TMC won most seats with the highest deletions
According to the data cited in The Indian Express, the 20 seats with the highest deletions after adjudication included Samserganj, Lalgola, Bhagabangola, Raghunathganj, Metiaburz, Suti, Mothabari, Goalpokhar, Malatipur, Chopra, Sujapur, Rajarhat New Town and Basirhat Uttar. All these seats were won by the TMC.
Farakka, which recorded 38,222 deletions, was won by the Congress. The BJP won Jangipur, Ratua, Karandighi, Ketugram, Manickchak and Monteswar.
In simple terms, of the 20 constituencies where deletions were the highest, 13 were won by Mamata Banerjee’s party. That alone punctures the propaganda that SIR deletions uniformly damaged the TMC while benefiting the BJP.
What the broader numbers show
In broader terms, in 187 seats where more than 5,000 voters were deleted, the BJP won 119 while the TMC won 65. The Congress managed 2 seats and AJUP won 1.
Out of these 187 seats, the number of deleted voters was higher than the margin of victory or lead in 47 constituencies. Within the BJP’s 119 seats, 28 had deletions greater than the victory margin. Of these, 26 had been won by the TMC in 2021. At the same time, among the 65 seats won or led by the TMC, 18 too recorded deletions higher than the victory margin.
This shows that while deletions and margins overlapped in several closely fought seats, the opposition’s attempt to reduce the entire Bengal result to one slogan around SIR is plainly misleading.
How SIR was carried out in Bengal
The SIR exercise was different from routine electoral roll revision. Registered electors were required to fill fresh enumeration forms and submit documents to establish eligibility, including citizenship. The Election Commission began the exercise in June last year, starting with Bihar and later extending it to nine other states, including West Bengal, and three Union Territories.
In Bengal, 60.06 lakh electors, or 8.5 per cent of those in the final roll published in February, were placed under adjudication. After cases were examined by around 700 judicial officers, 27.16 lakh electors were deleted. Appeals filed by those deleted are now pending before 10 Appellate Tribunals.
The propaganda versus the data
The post result reaction from opposition politicians, armchair journalists and television commentators tried to create the impression that voter deletion under SIR was behind TMC’s poor performance and proof of wrongdoing by the ECI. However, the seat-wise data, especially from the 20 constituencies with the highest deletions, neutralised the claims.
If SIR deletions alone were the magic explanation being projected by the usual ecosystem, the TMC would not have won 13 of the 20 seats where deletions were the highest. It is evident that there is an attempt to weaponise SIR as a one-line excuse for the Bengal result and they will continue to use it for months to come.
