India, April 18 -- West Bengal will vote in two phases on April 23 and 29 to elect a new assembly. After the publication of post-adjudication electoral rolls in the state, it is now clear that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise has led to a disproportionately high exclusion of Muslim voters in the state, a trend which has not been seen in any state which has undergone SIR so far and has released district-level data (to be sure, none of the other states went through the adjudication process). Given the fact that Muslims are unlikely to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), this has led to an unprecedented weaponisation of the Muslim vote question in these elections.

How important is the Muslim vote in the state for the rul...