Kolkata: As the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) places lakhs under “adjudication,” a deeper fault line is emerging – one that disproportionately affects women, including those contesting elections.Kalita Maji is a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Aushgram in Purba Bardhaman district. Swati Dutta Khandoker, the sitting MLA of Hooghly’s Chandipur, is contesting again from the same seat on a Trinamool Congress ticket. Other than contesting the elections and being women, what else is common between them? It’s the fact that they were uncertain about their status as voters much after their candidature had been announced.The ECI’s move to publish the supplementary list of voters past midnight on March 23 has been fraught with glitches and confusion.When The Wire reached out to the two last week, they were both ‘under adjudication’ and worried. ‘Was never afraid’Thirty-seven-year-old Maji had said over the phone last week, “I will feel bad if my name is omitted, but I am keeping my faith in the ECI. Mr. Gyanesh Kumar has promised to resolve these adjudicated cases; I have heard that in the news.” Kalita Maji (second from left). Photo: Official Facebook page.Maji is a first-time candidate and has a modest background. She used to work as a house-help in the past. When asked about the uncertainty around her candidature, she had said softly, “The party (BJP) knows everything. I trust, they will take care of that.’’ Now she is relieved. Her name is on the first supplementary list released by the ECI. This week she said over the phone, “I was never afraid of it. We are seven siblings; all but I had their names on the SIR list published on February 28. So, I was somewhat sure that my name won’t be deleted.”Also read: Special Integrated Removal: Data Shows Large-Scale Deletion of Women and Minorities in West Bengal SIR‘Married to a Muslim man’Fifty-nine-year-old Swati Khandoker, whose father was the chairman of Baidyabati Municipality, is still awaiting her fate as an elector. Her late husband, Akbar Ali Khandoker, was a TMC MLA from Chanditala. After his untimely death in 2005, she forayed into electoral politics. In 2006, in her debut from the Chanditala Assembly seat, she was defeated by CPI(M) candidate Bhaktaram Pan, but since 2011 she has scored a hat-trick against her opponents. Now she is eyeing a fourth term, yet remains unsure of her fate, thanks to the SIR. In her own words, “Our ancestral home goes back seven generations. I was born and brought up here.”“Under adjudication” on the list, Khandoker explained why she finds herself in limbo despite the fact that she has roots in Badiyabati.“I am married to a Muslim man. My maiden surname is Dutta and my married surname is Khandoker. The ECI is not ready to accept the logic,” she explained over the phone on March 19. She says she has submitted all the required documents, along with her father’s death certificate, to the ECI, who she feels has been “heckling common people in the name of logical discrepancy.”Swati Khandoker on the campaign trail. Photo: Official Facebook page.Unlike Maji, Khandoker’s name is not on the supplementary list. She is angry but not apprehensive. On March 25, she said over the phone that she has been a voter for more than four decades. She will soon appeal to the Tribunal formed by the Calcutta high court on the directive of the Supreme Court. But Khandoker has other worries. “I am the sitting MLA of Chanditala. Those who did not find their names on the first supplementary list, they are coming to me. But the list is unclear. I feel miserable that they are being harassed but I don’t even have any answers,” she said. What the law saysWhat would be the implications if a candidate’s name is left out of the voter list? Sabyasachi Chatterjee, a lawyer fighting the case of Mostari Bano, the first petitioner in the Supreme Court against the Bengal SIR, said, “If a candidate is adjudged a non-voter, their candidature will automatically be cancelled.”In Article 84 of the Constitution, it is clearly spelt out that to become an elected representative, one has to be a citizen of this country. The Representation of the People Act, 1951 further states: “A person shall not be qualified to be chosen as a representative of any State or Union territory in the Council of States unless he is an elector for a parliamentary constituency in that State or territory.”While Maji is relaxed and Khandoker is anxiously waiting for her name to appear on the supplementary list, due Friday, Mostari Banu’s fate was decided by the same law.First petitioner Mostari Banu during the hearing on her petition challenging the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise at the Supreme Court, in New Delhi, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. Photo: PTI.The 46-year-old said over the phone amidst her morning household chores, “I am not able to contest because of this adjudication issue.” She was supposed to be a CPI(M) candidate from Murshidabad’s Bhagabangola, but could not. Didn’t it hurt? “Yes, definitely, though for a different reason,” she added.As nearly 60 lakh voters are on the adjudication list, among whom more than 31 lakh are women, she feels this is, in itself, a defeat for women voters. Why? “I, and many others like me, have been voting since before 2002. Now we don’t know whether we will be able to vote this time, because we are under scrutiny by the ECI. If those who have been voting all these years suddenly find their names missing from the voter list, it will be a deep blow to everyone,” she said.Banu is of the opinion that in the name of the SIR, the ECI is conducting a National Register of Citizens. “After deleting the names of legal voters, they will try to show them as intruders,” said Banu. The implications extend beyond electoral participation. In many cases, access to social welfare schemes is linked – directly or indirectly – to one’s identification as a voter. The fear of losing these entitlements further deepens insecurity among affected women.