SIR in Bengal | ‘Dead’ voters on stage; Mamata, Abhishek say EC, BJP taking away rights of genuine voters

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo, Mamata Banerjee, on Tuesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of organising mass disenfranchisement of genuine voters in West Bengal, even as her heir apparent, Abhishek Banerjee, presented 10 people during a rally, alleging that the Election Commission had struck them off the electoral rolls, identifying them as ‘dead’.

The ruling TMC in West Bengal sharpened its attack on the Election Commission after police recovered thousands of allegedly pre-filled Form 7s, prescribed by the poll panel for objecting to the proposed inclusion or deletion of names from electoral rolls, from some local BJP leaders in the Bankura district of the state on Tuesday.

Mamata, addressing a news conference, showed the journalists pictures of bundles of Form 7s in the boot of a car, alleging that the BJP, with the help of the EC, had been deleting the names of the genuine voters from the electoral rolls. The car, allegedly owned by a BJP worker, was detained by the TMC activists in Bankura. Three BJP workers fled from the scene, but two were detained by the police, and an FIR was also lodged at the local police station.

“These were not blank forms. Names, details and objections had already been filled in, clearly pointing to a planned attempt to remove voters before they even knew what was happening,” the TMC alleged in a statement, adding, “Who decided whose names would be deleted? Who authorised this mass manipulation of voter identity?”

Mamata urged the TMC Booth Level Agents (BLAs) to stay vigilant and foil the political conspiracy hatched by the EC and the BJP.

Ever since the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls in West Bengal started in October 2025, the TMC has been accusing the EC of trying to ensure an edge for the BJP in the coming assembly elections, likely to take place in April or May.

“The EC, while sitting in Delhi, used the AI tools devised by the BJP to delete names, particularly of women who changed their surnames after marriage. They have also killed many voters across the state and struck them off the list, although they remain living,” the TMC supremo alleged during a news conference at Nabanna, the state civil secretariat, in Howrah.

Abhishek, the TMC general secretary, on the other hand, presented 10 people on the podium while addressing a party rally in Cooch Behar. He alleged that all of them had been declared dead by the EC and had been struck off from the draft voter list published by the commission on December 16 at the end of the first phase of the SIR.

The EC struck off over 58 lakh voters and cut down the size of the electorate from 7.66 crore at the beginning of the year to 7.08 crore in the draft list.

“They (the 10 people on the podium) all were born and brought up in Cooch Behar, and contributed to this land, but they were declared dead by the BJP's stooge Election Commission,” alleged Abhishek, adding: “Not just the funds for roads, housing or water, but the BJP government is also trying to take away our fundamental right of voting.”

The ‘Numero Due’ of the TMC had earlier this month similarly presented a woman and two men on the podium during a rally in the South 24 Parganas district of the state.

In the second phase of the SIR, which started on December 27, 1.67 crore voters under scrutiny are being summoned for hearings, including 1.36 crore flagged for “logical discrepancies” and 31 lakh whose current electoral roll details did not match or link to the records from the 2002 voter list. The number of voters with logical discrepancies, however, subsequently came down to 94.49 lakh.

Abhishek alleged that 3.5 lakh people of Cooch Behar district alone had been given notices by the EC over logical discrepancies in the enumeration forms filled by the voters for the revision of the electoral rolls. Mamata alleged that ‘logical discrepancy’ had not been a part of the original SIR verification process, and that it had been “included as an afterthought to delete more voters”.

The Chief Minister and the TMC supremo alleged that the “BJP-EC nexus” had been planning to remove another one crore genuine voters from the final electoral roll of the state.