Mamata calls Shah 'dangerous', alleges SIR being used to delete names of 1.5 crore voters in Bengal

Krishnanagar (WB), Dec 11 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday intensified her attack on Union Home Minister Amit Shah, calling him "dangerous" and accusing the Centre and EC of using the SIR of electoral rolls to unlawfully delete names of lakhs of eligible Bengali voters ahead of the 2026 assembly polls.

Addressing a rally in Nadia district's Krishnanagar, Banerjee alleged that Shah was directly guiding attempts to remove as many as "1.5 crore names" from the voters' list, and warned that she would sit on an indefinite dharna if even a single eligible voter was excluded during the SIR exercise.

"The country's home minister is dangerous. His two eyes send a message of disaster — in one eye you see Duryodhan, and in the other, Dushasan," Banerjee said, dramatically intensifying the rhetoric she has been using over the past week in her public meetings.

She also accused the BJP of attempting to weaponise the SIR exercise barely two months before the polls.

"They are so hungry for votes that they have launched the SIR now. If any eligible person's name is struck off, I will sit on a dharna till it's restored. There will be no detention camps in West Bengal," she said.

Banerjee claimed that district magistrates were being pressured to remove 1.5 crore names during the revision.

"In Bihar you may have managed it, but you cannot do this in Bengal," she said, alleging that the draft rolls were being prepared "at the instruction of the BJP's IT cell." The chief minister cited reports that individuals who had submitted names of grandparents as part of their documentation would be called for hearings and risk deletion from the rolls.

"Now we hear those who gave their grandparents' names will be summoned, and the plan is to strike off names directly from these hearings," she said.

On Wednesday, Shah had warned in Parliament that those "standing with infiltrators" would "vanish from Bengal", prompting Banerjee to issue a sharp counter on Thursday.

"There will be no NRC and no detention camps in West Bengal. We will not allow anyone to be driven out. And if someone is pushed out, we know how to bring them back," she asserted.

Attacking the Election Commission, Banerjee alleged that officers aligned with the BJP were being sent from Delhi to supervise SIR hearings and influence district administrations.

"Some BJP-backed people are overseeing the work of DMs. Why should only BJP's complaints be acted upon? Does the Commission work only on their letters?" she asked.

She further referred to BJP's allegation seeking deletion of lakhs of names, saying, "BJP has given a complaint. They want everyone's name except their own removed. Will the Commission delete names just because BJP writes a letter?" Banerjee also took aim at the ruling party's alleged use of money to divide votes ahead of polls.

"Whenever elections come, BJP tries to split votes with money. Do not allow your votes to be divided," she said, in what many political observers believe was a veiled reference to suspended TMC MLA Humayun Kabir's recent activities in Murshidabad.

The chief minister reiterated that she had not filled her own SIR enumeration form, declaring that she would do so only after every common citizen's form was accepted.

"A BLO came to my home-office. But I have not taken any form myself. Do I have to prove my citizenship now to a party of rioters?" she remarked.

Election Commission officials earlier clarified that as the serving chief minister, Banerjee is already enrolled as a "marked elector", a category that includes the Prime Minister, all chief ministers and other constitutional office-bearers, and does not legally require her to submit an enumeration form.

The first phase of the SIR concludes on Thursday with draft rolls scheduled to be announced on December 16, with hearings and verification continuing through December and mid of January.

The final electoral rolls are scheduled to be published in mid-February. PTI PNT ACD MNB