1.2 lakh electors deleted in Kolkata; West Bengal Congress asks poll body for corrective steps before civic polls

Congress State general secretary Ashutosh Chatterjee added that they had raised the issue of wrongful deletion multiple times during the Special Intensive Revision process in West Bengal but did not get a response to any of them. File | Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar Kolkata West Bengal Congress leaders on Friday (October 30, 2026) flagged that 1.20 lakh electors from Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and 39,000 from Howrah were removed from electoral rolls; they urged the poll body to take corrective measures to restore all rightful voters before the civic body polls. “Around 1, 20,000 voters shall not be able to cast their votes in the upcoming Kolkata Municipal Corporation and 39,000 voters in the Howrah Municipal Corporation due to the issues of logical discrepancies in relation to the unplanned SIR process which are hanging in the tribunal. We sincerely request your intervention for immediate follow up and priority basis disposal,” the letter said. The letter was also sent to the Chief Electoral Officer (West Bengal), the State Election Commissioner, and Municipal Commissioner and Administrator of KMC. “Over 1.59 lakh people will miss their votes; why are their cases not being heard on a priority basis at the tribunals? They missed exercising their voting rights one time during Vidhan Sabha; this is a repeated violation of people’s democratic right,” Congress State general secretary Ashutosh Chatterjee, who was one of the signatories of the letter told The Hindu. Mr. Chatterjee added that they had raised the issue of wrongful deletion multiple times during the Special Intensive Revision process in West Bengal but did not get a response to any of them. The State Congress leaders have also alleged that the claims and objections related to the delimitation process within the KMC jurisdiction are also pending with the administration, from which they have not received any communication. Two days back on Wednesday (October 28, 2026), political leaders and activists had written to the State Election Commissioner Krishna Gupta and urged them to delay the civic polls till the ongoing Special Summary Revision (SSR). The draft roll of the SSR will be published on November 11, and the final roll will be out on January 16, 2027. The municipal body polls are likely to be held in KMC, HMC, and several other municipalities in the next few weeks. The dates are yet to be announced. The memorandum submitted also said that the majority of the appeals filed at the tribunals from Kolkata and Howrah had been included back in the lists, and that rightful leaders should not be deprived of their right to vote. The letter was signed by MP Saugata Roy, Congress State president Subhankar Sarkar, former Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar, and several others. Published - October 31, 2026 02:15 am IST