SIR 2.0 | BJP dismisses Mamata's claims as Bengal CM writes to Election Commission

Pradeep Bhandari termed Banerjee's letter to the chief election commissioner 'signs of desperation' and accused her of trying to halt the voter roll cleanup exercise to shield the 'very ecosystem that kept it in power.'

Kolkata: Chief minister and the supremo of the ruling Trinamool Congress, Mamata Banerjee, wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Thursday, asking him to halt the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in West Bengal immediately, as the credibility of the exercise came under question.

“The manner in which this exercise is being forced upon officials and citizens is not only unplanned and chaotic, but also dangerous,” the chief minister wrote in a letter to the CEC, alleging that the absence of “basic preparedness, adequate planning or clear communication” had pushed the process into disarray.

She also alleged that “critical gaps in training” of the officials conducting the exercise, confusion over mandatory documents, and the “near-impossibility” of the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) meeting voters “in the midst of their livelihood schedules” had rendered the SIR of the electoral rolls in the state “structurally unsound” and placed its “credibility at severe risk."

The Bharatiya Janata Party, the principal challenger to the TMC in the state, however, dismissed her criticism about the SIR of the electoral rolls.

“Mamata Banerjee will continue to complain and dramatise the SIR process because she knows the noose is tightening and she risks being routed in 2026. Her political survival depends on shielding a voter base created through fraudulent and illegal means,” Amit Malviya, who oversees the BJP’s affairs in West Bengal, posted on X.

The BJP has long been accusing the TMC of winning elections by facilitating illegal migration from India’s eastern neighbour, Bangladesh, to West Bengal, and helping the infiltrators get citizenship documents and make their way into the electoral rolls.

The saffron party has been relying on the SIR to remove the illegal migrants from the electoral rolls and to defeat the TMC in the assembly elections next year.

The BJP claimed that a large number of illegal migrants had started crossing the India-Bangladesh border to return to the neighbouring country after the EC had launched the SIR in West Bengal, along with 11 other States and Union Territories.

“The fear is so deep that entire villages are emptying out. Many are refusing to accept the SIR forms altogether, and those who did take them are neither filling them in nor returning them. The panic is real — and it speaks volumes about what the voter rolls in these areas were built upon,” Malviya wrote on X. “The SIR is exposing the truth, layer by layer,” he added.

The TMC alleged that the fear of being disenfranchised had claimed many lives in the State – some died by suicide, while others died after falling sick due to anxiety. At least two BLOs had also died, allegedly due to additional work pressure for conducting the SIR.

The BLOs are being forced to stretch “far beyond human limits”, juggling their principal duties, "many being teachers and frontline workers", while conducting door-to-door surveys and navigating glitch-ridden e-submissions, Mamata alleged in her letter to the CEC.

The TMC had vowed to protect the right to vote of every genuine citizen of the country and had called the SIR “silent invisible rigging”. The party accused the EC of launching the exercise at the behest of the BJP.