Jabbing the air with her fingers, a 32-year-old homemaker in a Murshidabad village spoke truth to power on Saturday, asking Bengal’s chief electoral officer why genuine voters had been deleted from the electoral rolls. “Take steps to include the names deleted in the SIR; this is my request,” Taslima Biwi told CEO Manoj Agarwal, standing outside her home in Mahestala, Beldanga. My request, therefore, is to immediately include all genuine voters in the electoral rolls,” she added without a break. All genuine voters should find a place on the voters’ list.”Booth 158 of the Beldanga Assembly constituency, where Taslima votes, had 600 voters before the SIR began. Before the SIR, Murshidabad had 57,64,085 voters; the number eligible to vote on April 23 is 50,26,213.

Source: The Telegraph April 12, 2026 10:12 UTC