Shashi Tharoor says SIR may have helped BJP win Bengal, aided Congress in Kerala
3 min readUpdated: May 11, 2026 02:29 PM IST Congress MP Shashi Tharoor raised concerns about the election process in West Bengal, saying large-scale voter deletions due to Special Intensive Revision (SIR) may have affected the poll result. He said around 91 lakh names were removed from the voter list during the process. Of these, about 34 lakh people appealed, saying they were genuine voters. Tharoor said only a small number of these appeals were checked before polling, while most remained unresolved when voting took place. Speaking at the ‘India, That is Bharat’ roundtable during the Stanford India Conference, Tharoor said, “In the matter of the SIR, what I have said is a legitimate question to answer. Look at the Bengal case. 91 lakh names were struck off the rolls. Of those, 34 lakh living human beings have appealed, saying that they are around and they are legitimately entitled to vote. The rules have required each case to be adjudicated individually, so only a few hundred were adjudicated before the vote. To this day, there …
-1777129287503_d.png "BJP faces uphill task in Bengal phase 2 as TMC strongholds dominate key district")