Areas dominated by Matuas, a Scheduled Caste community, witnessed large-scale deletions in the second phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, just as they did in the first phase of the exercise by the Election Commission of India (ECI).After the second phase of the SIR, according to ECI data accessed by The Indian Express, the highest number of voter deletions took place in the Dabgram-Fulbari Assembly constituency of Darjeeling district, 16,491. In the Bagda constituency of North 24 Parganas district, 15,303 names were deleted. The Kalyani constituency of Nadia district stood third with 9,037 deletions. Matua voters form the majority in all three constituencies.A senior ECI official said, “In the second phase, in most cases of deletions, nobody appeared for the hearing. This trend suggests these electors were not confident about their documents.”The ECI published the final electoral roll after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal on Saturday. According to Manoj Agarwal, Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal, 63,66,952 voters were deleted in the final list. In this phase, 5,46,053 elector names were deleted from the draft roll. Meanwhile, 1,82,036 voters were added under Forms 6 and 6A, and 6,671 voters were added to the list under Form 8. After the second phase of the SIR, West Bengal now has 7,04,59,284 voters.The ECI also said that 60,06,675 voters are “under adjudication” in the state. Before the SIR exercise, the state had 7,66,37,529 voters. The final voter list includes 3,60,22,642 male voters, 3,44,35,260 female voters, and 1,382 voters of the third gender.Agarwal also said that as per the draft roll, published on December 16, 2025, there were 7,08,16,630 voters.Most Matua-dominated constituencies are in the areas surrounding Thakurnagar, where the Thakurbari of Matua is situated. The SIR first phase witnessed 24,927 deletions in Bagda, 16,718 in Gaighata, 26,183 in Bangaon-Uttar, and 18,562 in Bangaon-Dakhsin. After the second phase, the total deletions in Bagda reached 40,230. In Bangaon-Uttar and Bangaon-Dakshin, the total deletions now are 34,109 and 25,464, respectively. In Gaighata, the total is 23,488 now.A similar pattern emerged in Matua-dominated constituencies in Nadia and North 24 Parganas districts. These constituencies include Matigara-Naxalbari and Dabgram-Fulbari in North Bengal.Story continues below this adHowever, in Muslim-dominated districts like Maldah, Murshidabad, South 24 Parganas, and North 24 Parganas, many constituencies recorded fewer than a hundred deletions in the SIR second phase. Sujapur in Maldah saw only 68 voters deleted. In Samshergunj, Rejinagar, and Domkol of Murshidabad district, deletions stood at 96, 99, and 49, respectively. In South 24 Parganas’s Magrahat Purba, Magrahat Paschim, Falta, and Metiaburj constituencies, only 96, 63, 32, and 97 votes were deleted.A senior ECI official said, “In minority-dominated districts, there is a huge number of adjudication cases, which will be decided by judicial officers. That is why the number of deletions is low in those districts.”The data accessed by The Indian Express shows that the highest number of cases pending adjudication is in the minority-dominated Murshidabad district (11,01,145), followed by Malda (8,28,127), South 24 Parganas (5,22,042), North 24 Parganas (5,91,252), Howrah (2,89,714), and Uttar Dinajpur (4,80,341).