BJP’s victory in Bengal reveals the decay of Indian democracy | Elections

India’s recent elections have produced some of the most important decisions in the country’s history, particularly in West Bengal (WB), a border region of more than 100 million people who have been resisting the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

For the first time in history, the BJP has taken power in Bengal, winning 207 of the 293 seats declared so far and reducing the TMC to 80. One seat is up for grabs.

The extent of BJP’s victory has changed the political map of India. But this decision has also raised serious questions about the decisions themselves.

The election was held after a “Special Intensive Revision” (SIR) of the popular election rolls by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to remove duplicates, dead or “unfit”. Across West Bengal, more than 9 million names – about 12 per cent of the electorate – were initially withheld, withdrawn or checked during the campaign.

The campaign focused on Muslims, migrant workers and poor voters in districts where the BJP had struggled in the polls. In most of the constituencies where the BJP won, the number of voters turned away or disputed exceeded the margin of victory.

The results are huge. India may have gone from electoral distortion to populism.

Bengal is not just a state of India. Divided in 1947 on religious lines during the violent birth of India and Pakistan, it shares a border of more than 2,200 kilometers with Bangladesh and has become the center of Indian political thought. Muslims constitute about 27 percent of the state’s population and voted technically to stop the rise of the BJP.

That is why Bengal was so important to Modi.

The BJP has grown rapidly in government over the past decade but failed to oust Prime Minister Mamata Banerjee in 2021. Thus, the 2026 election was seen as a referendum on Banerjee’s weakened government and as a test of whether Indian elections retained the local credibility she enjoyed.

The controversy revolved around the SIR scheme, which was first launched in Bihar in June 2025 before being expanded to nine states and three Union territories, including West Bengal.

Under the project, Booth Level Officers – local election officials responsible for maintaining the names of voters – verified voters from house to house. Citizens have to re-establish their eligibility using documentary evidence within the minimum number of days. Failure to do so may result in the cancellation of the election rolls.

For the first time since India gained universal suffrage in its first general election in 1951-52, the burden of proving eligibility to vote was shifted to the citizens themselves.

This represented a critical rupture in the democratic alliance.

The project had a major impact on migrant workers. Bihar and Bengal are among the largest source of migrants in India, with millions working in remote areas. Many were unable to return home within the small confirmation windows. Others suffered from spelling inconsistencies, missing birth documents, name changes after marriage or inconsistencies between government records.

These problems were particularly serious among Muslims and poor women.

The ECI stressed that the exercise was administrative and necessary to eliminate duplication or fraud. The BJP framed it as an attempt to crack down on “illegal immigrants”, particularly what it says are undocumented Muslims from Bangladesh.

But in Bengal, this work got a political shape.

Muslim-majority states have witnessed some of the most disenfranchised. The project lacked transparency, where AI software powered by “logical dissonance” displayed Muslim names indiscriminately due to the dissonance of Urdu, Bengali and English alphabets.

The TMC has repeatedly said that the ECI is not functioning as an independent body but as an extension of the ruling party’s political agenda.

The Supreme Court of India intervened several times but eventually allowed the project to go ahead. Millions appealed after realizing their names were missing from the books. However, more than 3.4 million complaints remained before the vote, and less than 2,000 were withdrawn in time. The court said that voters whose appeals were not decided would be barred from voting in the election, although their names would be returned later.

That decision led to widespread disenfranchisement.

On a personal level, I experienced the process myself.

My family had to re-establish eligibility to remain on the electoral roll in Uttar Pradesh, where elections are due next year. Compared to Bengal, the deadlines were longer and the evaluation was less. However, even the control of the method showed its dangerous and non-exclusive nature. The elderly, refugees, women with undocumented status and poor citizens faced a bureaucratic labyrinth that many could not overcome.

Several officials privately admitted that Hindu voters had less reason to fear disenfranchisement than Muslims.

After that, about 2.7 million voters in Bengal were officially disenfranchised. Millions more were locked up in disputes that could not be resolved before polling day.

BJP polled 29,224,804 votes, 3,211,427 more than TMC’s 26,013,377. Analysts who analyze the constituencies say that in most of the seats won by the BJP, the number of disaffiliated or disputed voters exceeded the margin of victory.

It is worth saying that there are reasons to suspect that the decision was “stolen” with the help of the government machinery, including the ECI, although the law allows it to work as an impartial body.

The BJP’s victory was also aided by a massive Hindu campaign that greatly exaggerated the TMC’s so-called “pro-Muslim” views and fueled the insecurity of Hindus.

After the BJP’s setback in the 2024 elections, when Modi lost his majority and relied on his alliance partners, the party began to revamp its electoral strategy.

One of these efforts was the delimitation exercise, where parliamentary and assembly constituencies were redrawn in ways that favored the northern and Hindu regions. In Assam, where the BJP successfully returned to power this year, previous efforts have already reduced the electoral influence of Muslims in several districts.

The second step was to extend the SIR route across India, the political consequences of which were most evident in Bengal.

The third is the push for “One Nation, One Election”, a project that seeks to synchronize all national and international elections. Expressed as a change in management

Taken together, these points point to an attempt to reform India’s democratic structure.

A large part of India, which is now under the control of the BJP, is in the hands of the Hindutva, which is the Hindu religion of the party. Coupled with the erosion of elections and democracy, the current ideology and image of India has faced being erased and replaced by an authoritarian and Hindu-majority system.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect Al Jazeera’s influence.