An election does not lose credibility in a single moment. It erodes gradually ~ through procedural choices, administrative discretion, and the cumulative effect of opacity. The assembly election in West Bengal illustrates how that erosion can occur without any formal breakdown of constitutional order. At the centre of the controversy lies the conduct of the Election Commission of India. Constitutionally mandated to ensure free and fair elections, it instead finds itself at the heart of a debate over whether the process itself has become a site of political contestation.

The Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, carried out on a scale rarely seen in a single state, has raised questions not only about legality but about proportionality and timing. Removing or placing under scrutiny millions of voters weeks before polling day inevitably alters the terrain on which an election is fought. Equally significant is the asymmetry between exclusion and inclusion. While deletions were subjected to detailed categorisation, additions to the rolls appeared with far less transparency. This imbalance matters because electoral legitimacy depends not just on who votes, but on confidence that the system treats all participants by........

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