Kolkata: A recent study based on the data released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) has revealed that in the supplementary voter list of the Nandigram Assembly Constituency, the highest number of deleted names belong to the Muslim community. Suvendu Adhikari is the BJP nominee from the high-profile seat and is pitted against his one-time close aide, Pabitra Kar.
According to an interpretation by research organisation Sabar Institute, although Muslims constitute only 25 per cent of Nandigram’s total population, nearly 95.5 per cent of the voters deleted from the supplementary list are from this community.
Sabar Institute is a Calcutta-based research organisation studying religion and gender patterns in the ongoing revision of voter rolls in poll-bound Bengal.
The data shows that in the December 2025 draft electoral roll, a total of 10,604 names were deleted, of which 66.7 per cent were non-Muslims and 33.3 per cent were Muslims. However, the supplementary list presents a dramatically different picture.
A total of 2,826 voters have been newly deleted, out of which 2,700 are Muslims — accounting for about 95.5 per cent of the deletions. In contrast, only 126 non-Muslim voters, or roughly 4.5 per cent, have been removed. The deleted voters include 51.1 per cent men and 48.9 per cent women.
Sheikh Sufian, vice-president of the Trinamool Congress’s East Midnapore district unit and a key Nandigram leader, alleged: “Minority voters have been selectively removed at the BJP’s behest because they are not BJP supporters.”
Sufian further claimed that despite the Supreme Court’s direction to open appellate tribunals for redressal of the deleted voters, no such mechanism has yet been made operational. “We have started preparations to move the High Court,” he said.
Meghnad Pal, secretary of the BJP’s Tamluk organisational district unit, said: “We are also aware of the data. But where does the BJP come into this? The SIR process was not conducted by the BJP; it was done by the Election Commission.”
During the last assembly election in 2021, the biggest electoral duel was fought in Nandigram between Mamata Banerjee and Suvendu Adhikari, where Adhikari had won by a slender margin .
However, the TMC supremo alleged that a deliberate, temporary power cut during the 2021 election counting allowed BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari to reverse her lead. The incident created a high-profile controversy, prompting calls for an investigation, as the TMC labelled it a “conspiracy” or “load-shedding victory”. The TMC had moved the Calcutta High Court challenging Adhikari’s victory , but the case is still pending.
Political observers believe that the deletion of such a large number of names from one specific community could potentially influence the electoral outcome.
Whether this will have any decisive impact on the Nandigram result has now become the biggest political question.