India, Nov. 23 -- Since the rollout of the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal on November 4, border posts like Hakimpur in North 24 Parganas district have witnessed a marked increase in Bangladeshi nationals returning home, with district authorities and the Border Security Force noting that more than 1,600 Bangladeshi migrants had crossed back in just days. Many of these individuals had lived in India for over a decade, enrolling in voter lists and welfare schemes by leveraging documents allegedly facilitated by political figures affiliated with the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC).

This sudden reverse-migration by thousands of Bangladeshi citizens living illegally in West Bengal back to their homeland, ...