KolkataOctober 9, 2025 10:16 PM IST
First published on: Oct 9, 2025 at 10:11 PM IST
Amid Deputy Election Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti’s visit to West Bengal over the preparations for holding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused the poll panel of threatening state government officials and acting like a “rubber stamp” of the BJP.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief also hit out at the BJP-led government at the Centre for “using SIR to disenfranchise voters for its political benefit”.
“The SIR process itself is a fraud. It does not involve the public. Instead, a few officers are called for meetings and threatened, while the state government is completely excluded from these discussions. There are several complaints against the CEO of West Bengal (Manoj Aggarwal), which I will reveal at the right time. But I hope he does not overreact. He has been threatening many officers,” the chief minister said at a press conference at the state secretariat, Nabanna, here.
“How can officers be summoned and threatened? Four poll panel officials reportedly called BLROs and threatened them to prepare documents as per their instructions,” the CM alleged.
Pointing to BJP MP and Union Minister Shantanu Thakur’s remarks in which he claimed that around 1.2 crore “illegal voters” could be removed from West Bengal’s electoral rolls through the SIR, the TMC chief said: “How can a Union Minister declare that 1.2 crore voters will be removed? Does that mean plans are being made in the party office, and the Election Commission is merely a stamping approval? We expect impartiality from the Election Commission. Both the government and the Opposition together form the fabric of democracy. Above all, the pillars of democracy are the Constitution and the common people, and no one has the right to snatch away a citizen’s right to vote.”
“If genuine voters are removed, the people of Bengal will respond in a way no other state can. Don’t play with fire. We are Royal Bengal Tiger. Don’t injure us. An injured tiger is more dangerous,” she warned.
Reiterating her charge that the exercise of SIR was the backdoor implementation of the controversial NRC (National Register of Citizens), Mamata said: “This is not SIR. This is backdoor NRC. We strongly condemn the BJP government and Central agencies working under its instructions, who are politicising and saffronising everything — from education to festivals. There is even a Mir Jafar (traitor) sitting in Delhi. They think they can control everything, but if they continue this way, the truth will come out – the cat will be out of the bag.”
On SIR being concluded in poll-bound Bihar, Mamata added, “They (EC) were able to conduct it in Bihar because Bihar has a BJP-NDA government, and the agencies there helped in it. But Bengal’s community composition is completely different. Here, besides Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians, there are also SCs, STs, and other minority communities. NRC notices have already been sent to Rajbongshis, minority groups, and migrant workers.”