Tamil Nadu and West Bengal recorded strikingly high voter turnouts on Thursday — 84.80 per cent in Tamil Nadu and 91.91 per cent in West Bengal till 8 pm — but the turnout percentages may deceive more than they reveal.
Both states have seen sharp contractions in their electoral rolls following Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercises.
In West Bengal, about 91 lakh names have been deleted since October 2025, shrinking the electorate by nearly 12 per cent, from 7.66 crore in 2025 to 6.75 crore voters in the ongoing elections.
In the last Assembly election in 2021, there were 7.34 crore voters eligible to cast their ballot in West Bengal. In Tamil Nadu, the 2026 roll stands at about 5.67 crore, down from roughly 6.24 crore in 2021.
High turnout
This means that a high percentage turnout today is not directly comparable with earlier elections, as the denominator itself has shrunk. Analysts note that raw votes cast, rather than percentages alone, may offer a more honest picture of voter mobilisation.
In West Bengal, rival parties rushed to claim the high turnout as evidence of momentum. Minister Mamata Banerjee asserted that polling trends indicated the TMC was already in a winning position in West Bengal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, campaigning in the State, said the “bumper voter turnout shows ‘bhoy’ (fear) getting defeated by ‘bharosa’ (trust)” and predicted that the BJP would form the next government with a full majority.
In Tamil Nadu, the high turnout unfolded amid a three-cornered contest between the DMK, AIADMK-led alliance and actor-politician Vijay’s TVK. The emergence of Vijay as a third factor energised younger voters and triggered visible movement across districts, with reports of people crowding into buses and travelling long distances to vote in their native constituencies.
Published on April 23, 2026