'Like picking lice': Mamata slams EC for targeting Muslims, Hindu Matuas in SIR purge

West Bengal chief minister and the ruling Trinamool Congress supremo, Mamata Banerjee, alleged on Tuesday that some particular communities had been specifically targeted while disenfranchising voters during the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls in the state.

Mamata alleged that the Election Commission deleted voters from the electoral rolls, like “picking and removing lice from hair”, particularly in Murshidabad, Malda, North Dinajpur and other districts with significant populations of Muslims. Her Trinamool Congress has been accusing the EC of conducting the revision in West Bengal only to ensure an electoral advantage for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the assembly elections.

The TMC on Tuesday also alleged that the state’s Chief Electoral Officer, Manoj Agarwala, was accompanied by a local BJP leader during his recent visit to Nandigram in Purba Medinipur. The BJP leader, who was seen with the CEO during the visit, is also a close aide of Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of Opposition in the outgoing state assembly and the saffron party’s candidate in Nandigram, according to senior TMC leaders Chandrima Bhattacharya and Kunal Ghosh.

“Why are you discriminating? You are specifically targeting the Matuas, the Rajbanshis and the minorities and stripping them of their voting rights. Do you think that people do not understand this?” Mamata said, hitting out at the Election Commission.

She was addressing the election rallies in Chakdaha and Bongaon to seek votes for the TMC candidates in the Nadia and the North 24 Parganas district of the state.

The Muslims accounted for over 50 per cent of the electorate in at least 45 of the 294 assembly constituencies in West Bengal. The community swayed the poll outcomes in about 45 other constituencies across the state.

The Hindu Matuas can influence the election results in nearly 45 other constituencies.

A large number of Muslims and Hindu Matuas were struck off the electoral rolls since the beginning of the revision exercise in November 2025.

“A significant number of voters deleted from the rolls are dead. The chief minister wants dead voters to vote for her party, and that's why she is raising objections over the SIR process,” said Suvendu. He reiterated that the SIR of the electoral rolls was intended to strike off the illegal migrants from Bangladesh, who had sneaked into India, and with the support of the TMC, got settled in West Bengal and made their way into the electoral rolls. “This is an old tactic of Mamata Banerjee to pave the way for a law-and-order disturbance and anarchy in the run-up to the polls. She is trying to confuse people by equating the SIR, which is a tried and tested roll clean-up exercise, with the NRC (updating the National Register of Citizens). People will resist and will not allow her to succeed in this endeavour”.