Governor of West Bengal CV Anand Bose. File | Photo credit: ANI
West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose on Sunday (November 23, 2025) appealed to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to allay people’s concerns about the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state.
“There are various apprehensions among people about SIR. There have been incidents like suicide. In this context, the Election Commission and the state government should meet more to allay people’s apprehensions about SIR,” the governor said. His remarks come amid reports of suicides and unnatural deaths in the state due to the ongoing SIR exercise.
He added that he would do everything in his power to allay those concerns. Speaking to the media, the governor, who completed three years in office on the day, said his priority remained a violence- and corruption-free West Bengal. “I will work for Bengal, especially for women and children. I want to build a Bengal without violence and corruption,” he said.
Based on reports that people have gathered in large numbers along the Bangladesh border, especially at the Hakimpur outpost, the governor said he would have to visit the fields to understand the situation on the ground.
“Changing Demographics” board.
Over the past few days, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership has claimed that the demographics of the state have changed in the border areas due to illegal infiltration from Bangladesh. Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, after meeting Deputy Election Commissioner Gyanesh Bharati, raised the issue of “changing demography” in districts bordering Bangladesh.
On Sunday, BJP leader Amit Malviya said in a social media post that between 2002, when the SIR was last conducted by the ECI, and 2025, West Bengal has seen a 66% increase in the number of registered voters from 4.58 million to 7.63 million.
“The ECI data shows that out of the top 10 districts with the highest increase in voters, nine share a border with Bangladesh,” Mr. Malviya said.
The BJP leader said that according to the ECI data, “the nine border districts that have seen the sharpest increase are: Uttar Dinajpur (105.49% increase), Malda (94.58%), Murshidabad (87.65%), South 24 Parganas (83.30%), Jalpaiguri (82.3%), 7.52% North, 6 Cooch Behar (72.18%), Nadia (71.46%) and Dakshin Dinajpur (70.94%)’.
Mr. Malviya said the only non-border district in the top 10 is Birbhum (73.44%). “These illegal infiltrators are now spread across Bengal and the rest of India and form the core of Mamata Banerjee’s vote bank. That is why she is desperate to protect them – and why her virulent opposition to the Special Intensive Review (SIR) comes as no surprise,” the BJP leader said.
‘100-150 voters are wiped out from each booth’
On Saturday, a delegation of senior Trinamool Congress leaders met the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal and leveled allegations that 100-150 voters from each booth are being deliberately wiped out at the behest of the political party. The delegation consisted of senior ministers Arrop Biswas and Chandrima Bhattacharya and MPs Partha Bhowmick and Bapi Halder.
“Across West Bengal, the Election Commission is systematically and deliberately erasing the names of 100-150 voters from all the booths. When you multiply that across nearly 80,000 booths, the sheer scale of this operation reveals a horrifying conspiracy to rob Bengal of its democratic vote. But let’s be clear about one thing that everyone from the Trinamool will express as Congress watchdogs,” he said.
Accusing the BJP of capturing almost every democratic institution in the country, Trinamool leaders said “even the Election Commission is being weaponized. But this time their (BJP’s) conspiracy will collapse and their manipulation will be exposed.”
Published – 23 Nov 2025 22:15 IST
