We are just hours away from the anxiously awaited results of the most keenly watched state election in India in the recent past – that of West Bengal. But this is not one of many intelligent and compelling guesstimates to keep hyper-excited political participants and their near-insane followers pass these tense moments. This piece is more of a record of the processes followed to ensure the disenfranchisement of millions of voters – unprecedented in the annals of India’s electoral history.And yet the nation does not appear really bothered. We recall how crores of hapless citizens have been traumatised (many remain so) and were made to grovel before authorised minions of the election commission. They stood in the blazing summer heat, just to prove that they do exist, however dystopian that is. Ever since the Hindu Hriday Samrat of Gujarat 2002 arrived in Delhi in May 2014 in his crony’s airplane, he has taken over all constitutional and watchdog bodies – mainly by planting his amoral henchmen as heads, to weaponise them and protect his own interests.The 2025-26 state elections, however, mark the arrival of a ruthless warlord with the cloak of a constitutional post and his new toolkit, SIR, that has wreaked havoc among voters to carry out his Master’s political agenda.We need to understand this new toolkit as it is sure to be applied all over the republic. This matters more than who will win in Bengal though there is a possible result that could reaffirm that the state knows how to give it back. Even so, there is little chance for the state returning to its traditional post-Renaissance caste-free liberalism and rationality – irrespective of who wins. Some two centuries after Raja Rammohun began his battle, obscurantists may have staged a dreadful comeback. The more chilling fear is that the schism in Bengal may soon lead to considerable violence after election results are announced.Both sides are so jubilant that they have won that when reality hits any one on the nose, its millions may be out on the streets, unable to accept “stolen elections”. In fact, a hung house may actually control law and order more effectively.In relative hindsight, it becomes increasingly clear that the Election Commission was merely an accomplice in a meticulously-planned and mercilessly executed operation to seize Fort Bengal. The accompanying level of hate, rage and fury was last seen in Aurangzeb’s Deccan venture. The audaciousness and craftiness of the gameplan makes it rather obvious that it was all hatched by some the best legal and strategic brains, east of Aden – or maybe to its west too.For this, an unusually unscrupulous bureaucrat was selected who came with a bonus trait of crass misbehaviour, where the opposition was concerned. This smashed the adage that civil servants, however bad, are simply incapable of uncivil coarse uncouth conduct vis-à-vis the political class that they have been house-trained for life to serve. To go further back, to the end of 2023, one recalls the heated debates in parliament that one had the occasion to participate in, when the amendment regarding appointment of election commissioners was hustled through.Even the most uninformed of MPs guessed then that the persons who would be appointed by the dangerous duo need not burden himself with outdated liberal concepts like minimal impartiality. There was little doubt that whoever the duo anointed would fulfil the historic task of demolishing whatever was left of one of India’s finest democratic institutions, with true Viking aggression.Thus when the new Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) played his first move by declaring a hitherto unheard-of exercise called Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar in June 2025, everyone was taken aback. It soon became clear that some powerful interest group wanted their man to break away from the 75-year time tested method of electoral roll revision that 24 of his predecessors had done successfully – without any major controversy.Also read: 2002 Versus 2025: A Comparative Analysis of Two SIRsIts legality remains under a cloud as it is not covered under the normal Registration of Electors Rules of 1950 and so the election commission claimed it had residual powers under Section 21 of the Representation of the People (RP) Act, 1950 but such a contraption was never, ever required for this purpose by India’s 24 earlier CECs. One had prayed for the Supreme Court to get into the act – as the ECI’s new-fangled SIR system instantly converted a constitutional right into a nightmare of voters being viewed as suspects, and his citizenship being called into question. One may cite that Article 329 (b) of the Constitution prevents courts from interfering with the election commission’s operations during an ongoing election – but this ‘roll revision’ is not covered by this debarment.No such succour was available to voters in Bihar and electoral lists were mauled by the ECI, revelling in its new found but questionable powers. True, the apex court did bring in some patchy first-aid in the operation, occasionally pulling up the commission and expanding the restrictive list of documents that voters could submit. But more was expected as the tables between voters’ rights and a mailed fist of state power masquerading as a protector were inverted so ingeniously and shrewdly.A point that foxes one trained in administration is that since everyone knew the election process had to be concluded by mid-November 2025, why was the tortuous process launched in June – when commonsense dictates that fair revision of this unprecedented SIR programme requires around 9 to 10 months? Oh, that’s because “elections-are-knocking” is/was a perfect excuse for the commission to ram its way through, delete the desired number of voters who appear threats by its political masters and convince the courts to let the constitutional body to do its job the best it could. This fits in, ever so neatly, and the user-friendly government in Bihar appeared to be aiding the ECI’s gameplan. Everyone knew that Bihar was just “net practice”, for the real target was West Bengal.SIR 2.0 was announced for West Bengal in October 2025 – with less than 6 months left for the final voters list and, obviously, “hurry-hurry” became the ECI’s strategy before the Supreme Court. The state government seethed in anger at the CEC’s deliberately offensive behaviour and fell into his trap. Mamata Banerjee’s Achilles’s heel is her anger and how she personalises every battle. She thereby loses the advantage of coming up, ever so politely, with a furious backhand smash.The state government lost valuable time by not providing adequate names of appropriate-level officers to the election commission – which took full advantage of this and complained repeatedly to the Supreme Court. The apex court was visibly vexed at this “trust deficit” and on February 20, 2026, the court passed an extraordinary order under Article 142 of the Constitution. It declared that henceforth, senior judicial officers would be drafted from the state and adjoining states, and they would examine all pending cases of inclusion or exclusion from rolls and “those under adjudication”.Also read: In Bengal SIR, ‘Logical Discrepancy’ Became the Election Commission’s Alibi for Mass Voter ExclusionThis is a new term in electoral roll revision the meaning and implication of which is suspect. AltNews examined just 6 constituencies in Bengal and found that 3 lakh voters had been placed “under adjudication” in them, out which 92.4% of some were Muslims. The more devastating category invented by this CEC to disenfranchise voters that the master did not want is called “logical discrepancy”.Machiavellian brains, within Nirvachan Sadan or outside, developed a completely inscrutable computer software (without transparently disclosing its source code) to torment millions. Any name can have several variations in spelling and this was pounced upon as a criminal offence warranting immediate banishment from India’s democratic process. These terms – which are new terms and procedures – are not mentioned in the 1960 bible, the Registration Law, and most Indians are not even aware of the deadly mechanisms that India’s 25th CEC has instituted. But the Supreme Court’s stunning silence on this patently unfair process hurt all, and Frontline wrote on April 14, 2025, “How the Supreme Court Became a Manager of Disenfranchisement“.After having conducted two parliamentary elections in West Bengal and having organised roll revisions, one can swear under oath that officers do not plan such complicated manoeuvres with this finesse and step-by-step cunning. No sir! This is the style of corporate raiders, armed with atrociously high cost legal eagles. Maybe the truth will be ferreted out some day.Returning to the Supreme Court’s intervention of February 20, we find that (after initial hiccups) some 700 serving and retired judicial officers were commandeered to sift through ECI’s computer-generated mess. But when judicial officers perform purely executive functions as electoral registration officers, Montesquieu turns in his grave as his “Separation of Powers” goes for a toss. Be that as it may, the judicial officers went through their tasks and in the end, we find that 90 lakh voters were excluded by SIR in West Bengal, which includes those deleted by the ECI’s magic machine and by judicial officers.Muslims, who constitute 27% of Bengal’s population were favoured with “additional 7% cut” as they accounted for 34% of the deleted names. In one Muslim majority constituency (56-Samserganj), 98.8% of adjudication names were deleted en masse. No one is infallible and many are biassed. So when such eye popping news do the rounds, it is appropriate to locate who exactly did what and why.The coup de grace was when the Supreme Court decided that 27 lakh voters who had “appealed” against the ECI’s arbitrary deletions would not be allowed to vote this time. Frankly, a large number from this could have been disposed by “District Election Officers” under section 24 of the RP Act – as has been done for decades so successfully. But the Supreme Court took a different view and issued a totally unprecedented order that this entire humungous lot of voters would not vote. What a pity. Again, one can take the risk of sticking one’s neck out like a giraffe and predict from experience that over 90 percent of these 27 lakhs would be reinstated as voters! But “the battle would be lost and won” by then – and Gyanesh Kumar will not stop chuckling.What is more worrisome is the deep social gash that is so visible in Bengal. A section of so-called upper caste educated Bengalis, who has discarded casteism, rituals, orthodoxy and communal feelings for over two centuries, to create a brave new world of rationality and science, and had excelled in the arts as well, are now celebrating new toxins like caste and religious malice. It is perfectly understandable not to like Mamata Banerjee’s regime – I walked out it, at the top – but to utilise this anger as vitriol and to sincerely believe vicious religious canards is completely different.Twelve years of sustained propaganda has worked, surprisingly, at even the highest levels and one has rarely seen before such sheer hatred for the other. Violence appears quite possible but that can be controlled. Who will control animal urges? An election can be won or lost – but civilisational values cannot be allowed to be destroyed for decades, as it appears now. One prays one is wrong but facts appear rather dreadful.