Mamata calls Shah 'dangerous', warns dharna if single eligible voter's name deleted in SIR

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 warned that she would sit on an indefinite dharna if even a single eligible voter's name was excluded during the SIR exercise.

Addressing a rally in Nadia district's Krishnanagar, Banerjee alleged that Shah was directly guiding attempts to remove "1.5 crore names" from the voters' list, and accused 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.

"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. He asks to tag the people of these bordering areas as Rohingyas and Bangladeshi," Banerjee said, dramatically intensifying the rhetoric she has been using over the past week in her public meetings.

Banerjee alleged that the SIR exercise was being "weaponised" barely two months before the polls, selectively conducted in Opposition-held areas and supervised by officials "aligned with the BJP" and sent from Delhi.

"From Delhi, BJP is sending people to pressurise the DMs with the intent of removing 1.5 crore names from the electoral list. If any name is deliberately removed, I will do a sit-in protest. I urge you to do the same. If any eligible person's name is struck off, I will sit on a dharna till it's restored," she said.

In her sharpest escalation yet, the chief minister issued an unusually strong call to women to "fight back" if their names were struck off, alleging that the revision process would be used to intimidate mothers and sisters during the polls.

"Mothers and sisters, if your names are struck off, you have things at your home the ones you use for cooking. Do you have strength in your soul? If they cut your name, will you catch them? The women will fight from the front and the men will be behind them. Bengal wants to see your strength," she said.

Banerjee claimed that district magistrates were being pressured to remove valid 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.

Her remarks came a day after Shah 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.

Stepping up her confrontation with the EC, Banerjee said, "People elect the government, not the Election Commission. You want to conduct an election on the electoral rolls prepared by BJP IT cell. Bihar couldn't resist; Bengal will." Banerjee also said the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre would not be able to complete its term.

"All the agencies are working on behalf of BJP without realising that BJP won't be in power forever. You don't have to wait till 2029; BJP will not be able to complete their term at the Centre," she said.

She further accused the BJP of attempting to use money power to divide votes ahead of the polls. "Whenever elections come, BJP tries to split votes with money. Do not allow your votes to be divided," she said, in what observers believe was a veiled reference to suspended TMC MLA Humayun Kabir's activities in Murshidabad.

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

"A BLO came to my home-office. But I have not taken any form myself. I have not submitted my form yet. I am a 3-time Central minister, 7-time MP, and 3-time CM. Do I have to prove my citizenship now to a party of rioters?" she remarked.

EC officials have clarified that as a serving chief minister, Banerjee is already enrolled as a "marked elector," a category that includes the PM, all CMs 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 for publication on December 16.

Hearings and verification will continue through December and mid-January, with the final electoral rolls slated for publication in mid-February. PTI PNT MNB