It’s Tuesday afternoon, February 3, 2026, and the political atmosphere in Delhi is thick enough to cut with a knife. Mamata Banerjee just upped the ante by calling for the impeachment of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, and she’s not standing alone. Akhilesh Yadav is right there with her, claiming a “conspiracy” to erase nearly 1 crore voters in Uttar Pradesh.
The thing is, we’re seeing a massive collision between “data cleaning” and “voter suppression” narratives just weeks before the 2026 state polls. Or nothing.
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The Impeachment Push: Field Notes
It’s an ongoing situation where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR)—the first of its kind in over 20 years—has turned into a political firestorm. Here’s the ground reality:
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The 58 Lakh Deletions: In West Bengal alone, around 58.2 lakh names were scrubbed from the draft rolls published in December. The EC says these are “Dead, Shifted, or Duplicate” voters. Mamata Banerjee says they’re TMC supporters being targeted in a “surgical strike” on democracy. Those too.
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The Bhabanipur Target: Mamata claimed that in her own seat, Bhabanipur, the poll panel has a target to delete 1 lakh voters. Early draft data actually showed about 45,000 names missing already. And then the walkout followed.
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The UP “PDA” Plot: Akhilesh Yadav is alleging that in UP, the EC is using “Form 7” (the deletion form) to wipe out Muslim and Dalit (PDA) voters. He claimed 1,200 Muslim votes were deleted from a single booth in Kannauj. Authentic, but the state’s Chief Electoral Officer is basically saying, “We’re just following the rules; file a complaint if you’re mad.”
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Why Impeachment? To impeach a CEC, you need a motion signed by at least 50 MPs in the Lok Sabha (or 100 in the Rajya Sabha), followed by a two-thirds majority in both houses. It’s the same process as removing a Supreme Court judge. Let’s be real—with the current numbers, this is more about “political theatre” and building a narrative than an actual removal. Or nothing.
SIR 2026: The Numbers at Stake
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| State | Voters Deleted (Draft) | Alleged Target | Key Grievance |
| West Bengal | 58.2 Lakh | 1 Crore+ | Deletions concentrated in TMC strongholds. |
| Uttar Pradesh | ~35 Lakh (Ongoing) | 1 Crore | Deletion of ‘PDA’ (Minority/Dalit) voters. |
| Tamil Nadu | ~18 Lakh | Unknown | Concerns over ‘migrant’ voter exclusions. |
| Kerala | ~12 Lakh | Unknown | ‘Dead’ voter list accuracy questioned. |
And Here’s the Kicker…
The Special Intensive Revision is being conducted using a new “AI-based deduplication” software. The thing is, the software is flagging anyone who hasn’t voted in the last two major elections as “potentially shifted.” Those too. In a country where seasonal migration is the norm, this “clean-up” is hitting the poorest voters the hardest. It’s a bit messy.
One side comment—the Final Electoral Rolls are set to be published on February 17, 2026. If these millions of voters aren’t restored by then, the 2026 elections in Bengal, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu will be the most litigated in Indian history. It’s an ongoing situation. Or nothing.
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