West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026 | 'Will move court again to resist voter deletions in SIR': Mamata resolves to fight

Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday attacked the BJP and the Election Commission over 91 lakh voter deletions during SIR and said her party will move court again to protest the removal of names from electoral rolls.

“You will not be able to defeat the TMC by deleting names. We will move a court again to resist the exclusion of names," Banerjee said, slamming the saffron party and the poll body.

Banerjee, who filed her nomination papers as the TMC candidate for the Bhabanipur assembly seat amid a sea of supporters, also warned that voting for the BJP would effectively mean "giving up fish, meat, and speaking in Bengali".

"I am really pained that so many names have been deleted from Bengal electoral rolls during SIR. I appeal to people, not just in Bhabanipur but across all 294 seats in Bengal, to ensure TMC's victory", she said.

The EC figures, which pushed the total deletion to over 90.83 lakh names from the original voter base of 7.66 crore in October 2025, showed that the proportion of removal of electors now remains at over 11.85 per cent.

Slamming the poll body and the SIR process, the TMC supremo asked what was the need to form tribunal if people cannot cast their votes. "And then you are saying that the list has been frozen. What is this? We will challenge it and try to understand it."

Addressing a poll rally at Arambagh in Hooghly district, the TMC supremo accused the saffron party of trying to manipulate the electoral rolls and offering money to woo voters.

Banerjee also charged the Election Commission with intimidating people over the phone.

“It (EC) is working at the behest of the BJP. It is calling people over the telephone to threaten and intimidate them,” she claimed.

West Bengal's electorate has shrunk from 7.66 crore to 6.77 crore, forcing the TMC and the BJP to fight the two-phase elections later this month on terrain very different from the one on which Mamata Banerjee stormed back to power in 2021.