India, April 17 -- Women voters in the migrant-majority belts of Samserganj and Lalgola in West Bengal are emerging as a potentially decisive force in Murshidabad's election, with many saying that their concerns over jobs, migration and deletions from electoral rolls now matter more than the identity politics dominating the campaign.

With thousands of men from the two constituencies working in Kerala, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and the Gulf, women are running households, dealing with banks and Government offices, and for the first time, taking political decisions of their own. The shift has acquired added significance after around 92,000 names were deleted from the electoral rolls in Samserganj and nearly 69,000 in neighbouring Lalgola in ...