NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Monday asked former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to file a fresh plea related to victory margin being less than deletion of votes in the Speical Intensive Reivison (SIR), which was one of the burning poll planks of the outsed TMC.A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi took note of the submissions after senior advocate and TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee alleged that in 31 seats, victory margins were less than the number of votes deleted during the roll revision.The Election Commission opposed the arguments, stating that the proper remedy was an election petition and that concerns related to the SIR, including appeals over addition or deletion of votes, could be addressed through the poll panel.The SIR of electoral rolls became one of the most fiercely debated issues in the 2026 West Bengal assembly elections, with the exercise significantly reshaping the state’s voter base before polling. Nearly 91 lakh names, around 12 per cent of the electorate, were removed during the revision process. Of these, more than 60 lakh voters were marked as deceased, while nearly 27 lakh cases remained pending or under scrutiny. Tribunals constituted by the Election Commission following Supreme Court directions were able to restore only a limited number from these 27 lakh cases.Reports suggested that those impacted by the SIR included a large number of Muslims, a sizeable section of the Matua community, as well as Hindus. The BJP defended the exercise as a necessary effort to cleanse electoral rolls of “illegal” and duplicate entries. Opposition parties, including Mamata Banerjee’s camp, alleged that the process amounted to systematic disenfranchisement, triggering intense political confrontation.Irrespective of the competing claims, the deletions appeared to influence voting patterns across the state. The overall electorate declined from more than 7.66 crore to nearly 7.04 crore, excluding voters whose cases were still under adjudication.In 169 assembly constituencies where over 25,000 names were deleted, the TMC had enjoyed a strong advantage in 2021, winning 128 seats against BJP’s 41. In the 2026 elections, however, BJP improved its tally in these seats to 104, while TMC’s count fell to 63. Congress secured 2 seats in this category.In the other 124 constituencies, where deletions remained below 25,000, BJP’s tally increased sharply from 36 seats in 2021 to 108 in 2026, representing a three-fold jump.Among the 38 constituencies that recorded the highest number of “logical discrepancy” deletions, TMC had won 34 seats in the previous election. In the latest polls, that number declined to 22, indicating a weakening of the party’s earlier dominance in those regions.In the final results of the recently concluded elections, the BJP won 207 seats in the 294-member West Bengal assembly, while the TMC secured 80 seats. The state also recorded a voter turnout of more than 90 per cent.The Supreme Court bench was hearing a batch of petitions connected to the SIR exercise, including one filed by Mamata Banerjee.