7 million people challenged their expulsions but were still removed. The Narendra Modi government has justified the revision, known as Special Intensive Revision (SIR), as a way to stop 'infiltrators' – a pejorative term largely referring to illegal Muslim Bangladeshi immigrants – from voting. The divisive exercise by the central Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government to 'purify' the electoral roll has led to a chorus of fury.
The drawing up of a new electoral register has been carried out at unprecedented speed, ahead of the West Bengal state elections which will begin on Thursday. The BJP, led by prime minister Modi, is hoping to seize power from Trinamool Congress (TMC), the party that has ruled West Bengal for 15 years. According to experts and organisations, Muslims and other religious minorities have been disproportionately expunged from the electoral roll in West Bengal, leading to allegations of deliberate targeting and persecution.
Sabir Ahamed described religion as the biggest differentiator in the deletions, with Muslims disproportionately affected. In some Muslim-majority constituencies, almost half the voters have been deleted, including those who have documents to show they are born and bred Indian citizens and either they, or their parents, were on the 2002 voter roll. The BJP has failed to gain a foothold in West Bengal, in part because it does not have the backing of the state's sizeable Muslim population, who are wary of its Hindu nationalist agenda.
The process of revising the electoral roll has been taking place in states and territories across India. 1 million deletions were due to deaths or duplicates versus other reasons, and the exact number of Muslims or other minorities deleted has not been confirmed. The specific criteria used by authorities to justify individual deletions and whether deleted voters can vote in the upcoming elections are also unknown.