Jittery Mamata Opposes EC's Sir in Bengal

The TMC supremo has directed booth level officers to prevent voter deletions.

- Suprotim Mukherjee

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has sparked a political firestorm by vehemently opposing the Election Commission of India's (ECI) proposed Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll, raising the bogey of voter disenfranchisement and terming it a "backdoor drive for the National Register of Citizens (NRC)". She has threatened to gherao the ECI if it proceeds with SIR roll revision in West Bengal.

The Trinamool Congress supremo's repeated remarks, including directives from state government programmes to booth level officers (BLOs) to prevent voter deletions, have drawn sharp criticism from the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and caused alarm among teachers and government employees who will work as BLOs and are tasked with electoral duties.

With West Bengal's Assembly elections slated for 2026, the controversy over SIR threatens to escalate tensions in an already polarized state.

On Monday, the ECI released data from the 2002 SIR of West Bengal's electoral roll, covering 11 of the state's 23 districts—Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur, Malda, Nadia, Howrah, Hooghly, Midnapore, and Bankura—spanning 103 of 294 Assembly constituencies.

The remaining constituencies are expected to be updated soon. This release comes as the ECI has completed the SIR in poll-bound Bihar, where concerns about disenfranchisement have fuelled vehement Opposition protests even in the national capital and affected Parliament's functioning.

The Trinamool Congress, led by its supremo Mamata Banerjee, has questioned ECI's push for a fresh SIR in West Bengal. It has pointed a finger at the timing-less than a year before the 2026 state elections.

On June 24, the ECI justified the revision, citing the need to clean electoral rolls due to rapid urbanization, migration, first-time voters, unreported deaths, and the inclusion of undocumented foreigners.