Millions of people in India’s West Bengal fear losing access to subsidized food and welfare benefits after being removed from electoral rolls under a controversial voter verification drive, according to a report by Al Jazeera.
The report said around nine million residents were deleted from the state’s electoral rolls under the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise ahead of the April-May state elections, which brought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power in West Bengal for the first time.
The SIR exercise was introduced to identify deceased, duplicate and allegedly ineligible voters.
The BJP government has defended the move as part of efforts to remove “illegal Bangladeshi” migrants from the electoral rolls in the border state.
However, Al Jazeera reported that experts who analysed the deletions found Muslims were disproportionately affected, particularly in districts where they form a significant share of the population and could influence election outcomes.
The report said the West Bengal government subsequently linked welfare eligibility to the revised voter list.
According to an order issued by the state’s Food and Supplies Department on June 4, ration cards belonging to people removed from the electoral rolls would be marked inactive as authorities verify beneficiaries under the Public Distribution System (PDS), which serves nearly 90 million people.
The government later clarified that about 2.3 million people who have challenged their exclusion before special tribunals would continue receiving benefits until their appeals are decided.
Al Jazeera interviewed several residents who said they were living in uncertainty while awaiting decisions on their appeals.
One of them, railway construction worker Antu Sheikh from Murshidabad district, said he feared losing both his voting rights and access to subsidised food.
Another resident, Sakeena Bano from South 24 Parganas, told Al Jazeera that despite submitting documents to a tribunal, her appeal was rejected without a hearing.
She also fears losing access to food assistance and a government cash transfer program for women.
The report said other residents expressed concern that additional welfare schemes could also become inaccessible after their names were removed from the electoral rolls.
Legal experts questioned the government’s decision to link welfare benefits to voter registration.
Senior advocate and rights activist Sanjay Hegde told Al Jazeera there was no constitutional basis for denying welfare benefits based on electoral status, arguing that such a policy could violate the principle of equality before the law and create a dangerous precedent.
The issue has also reached the courts.
According to the report, an agricultural workers’ organisation has challenged the policy, arguing that between 3.5 million and six million people could eventually lose access to subsidised food.
India’s Supreme Court declined an urgent hearing and directed the petitioners to approach the Kolkata High Court.
Rights advocates also questioned the effectiveness of the appeal process.
Lawyer Asif Reza told Al Jazeera that only a handful of cases were being heard each day despite hundreds of thousands of names being removed from electoral rolls in some districts, raising concerns over whether affected people could obtain timely justice.
Welfare economist Jean Drèze described the SIR exercise as “clumsy, unreliable and authoritarian,” warning that extending alleged errors in voter rolls to food distribution would further harm vulnerable communities.
Opposition leaders also criticised the policy.
Sagarika Ghose, a lawmaker from the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), told Al Jazeera that denying welfare benefits based on the voter verification exercise was “highly inhuman” and argued that the process itself contained significant flaws.
The West Bengal Food and Supplies Department did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment, according to the report.