Suvendu Adhikari.
Credit: PTI Photo
Kolkata: In a blistering rebuttal to West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee's letter urging the CEC to halt the "arbitrary and flawed" SIR, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Monday said her communication reeked of political desperation and amounted to a frantic bid to derail an exercise that could expose electoral malfeasance which the TMC "nurtured and exploited for electoral gains".
In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, countering Banerjee's communique, Adhikari urged the CEC to continue the SIR of electoral rolls "undaunted, fortified by the unwavering support of the democratic masses".
He maintained that the CM's call to halt the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is an "admission of defeat" in the wake of people of the state embracing "the SIR as a beacon of hope".
"Her narrative of 'anxiety and harassment' is a TMC-orchestrated mirage, drowned out by the chorus of approval from those who reject her politics of patronage and prefer the purity of the ballot," Adhikari wrote.
In her letter dated January 3, Banerjee accused the commission of presiding over an "unplanned, ill-prepared and ad hoc" process marked by "serious irregularities, procedural violations, and administrative lapses".
Alleging that the poll body reduced the process to a "farce", Banerjee asserted that the situation on the ground, instead of any corrective course being adopted, had only deteriorated further, despite her two earlier communications to the CEC.
The CM said the undue haste with which the SIR was being carried out, "without adequate groundwork or preparation", had rendered the process fundamentally flawed.
Calling the issues illustrative and by no means exhaustive, she claimed, "These deficiencies demonstrate that the SIR process, as presently conducted, stands deeply compromised and strikes at the basic structural framework of our democracy." She warned that if corrective steps were not taken immediately, the "exercise must be halted" to prevent "irreparable damage" and "large-scale disenfranchisement".
Adhikari, on the other hand, alleged that Banerjee's "litany of grievances" is not only factually inaccurate, but a deliberate distortion designed to malign the EC as "politically motivated" and to manufacture a false narrative of widespread discomfort and disenfranchisement.
"The SIR is not, as she falsely portrays, an 'unplanned, ill-prepared, and ad hoc' farce, but a meticulously orchestrated national initiative aimed at purging the system of duplicate, bogus, and ineligible entries that have inflated voter lists and undermined the sanctity of our democracy," Adhikari said.
"It is clear as daylight that the Hon'ble Chief Minister's outrage stems from the counterfactual reality: the SIR is proving devastatingly counterproductive to her party's prospects in the upcoming 2026 Assembly Elections, as it lays bare the "extras" - fictitious voters, ghosts of the deceased, and illegal infiltrators; that her administration and party cadres have systematically shielded and thrived upon," he added.
Dismissing allegations of undue haste and inadequate preparation, Adhikari said more than 50,000 booth-level officers (BLOs) and electoral registration officers (EROs) in the state had undergone training for the revision exercise.
Adhikari countered Banerjee's allegations of "excessive verifications and complications in hearing processes" by asserting that document checks for "logical discrepancies" (eg spelling or age variances) is a gold standard for accuracy, not a ploy to delay.
"Claims of hardship to the elderly or infirm are only rarest happenings and are basically exaggerated propaganda," he claimed.
Adhikari defended the use of digital platforms such as WhatsApp for urgent clarifications, calling them supplementary to formal circulars and consistent with modern administrative practices.
The BJP leader, in turn, accused the state administration and TMC members of attempting to derail the SIR by intimidating field officials and spreading misinformation.
He said the exclusion of booth-level agents (BLAs) from certain hearings was necessary to ensure neutrality and prevent "cadre-led disruptions" during the process.
"The instructions issued from time to time are inconsistent and often contradictory," Banerjee had written, alleging that the lack of clarity and planning at both the national and state levels had "severely eroded public confidence in the integrity of the electoral process".
"Far from eroding public confidence, the SIR has been met with resounding support from the vast majority of West Bengal's People, who view it as a long overdue cleansing that will finally level the playing field and restore faith in free and fair polls," Adhikari responded.
The leader of the opposition in the West Bengal Assembly called the CM's alleged "misuse of IT systems" for unauthorised deletions "inflammatory fiction".
He said calibrated acceptance of documents must be subjected to forensic scrutiny to combat forgery, a uniform national standard applied equitably.
"Migrant workers, whom she hypocritically champions, are not being 'compelled' but legitimately verified to ensure their votes aren't diluted by imposters - a process welcomed by genuine labourers who seek authentic representation," Adhikari said.