Mamata leads TMC anti-SIR stir in Kolkata, Suvendu dares CM to stop exercise

Kolkata, Nov 4 (PTI) Rallies, counter-rallies, and fiery speeches from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her chief critic, Suvendu Adhikari, escalated the state's already hyper-charged political atmosphere on Tuesday which marked the effective start of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

The political activities, coupled with fresh reports of multiple deaths during the day allegedly provoked by citizenship trauma, signalled that the voter roll revision process would serve as the primary battleground for the assembly elections due next year.

The SIR exercise commenced with over 80,000 booth-level officers visiting homes to distribute over 16 lakh enumeration forms on the first day, a senior official said.

While Banerjee mounted a blistering attack on the BJP and the EC, and accused them of turning the SIR into a political tool for a "silent, invisible rigging" ahead of the polls, Adhikari dared the TMC to stop the exercise and demanded that every Bangladeshi infiltrator be deported from the country.

Following a massive anti-SIR rally through the heart of Kolkata, the CM, accompanied by her nephew and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, alleged that the BJP and the EC were "colluding to disenfranchise two crore voters from West Bengal" as part of a larger plan to capture power.

The TMC supremo also involved leaders across religious communities and celebrities from the television and sports fraternities of the city in her four-km march which she undertook with a copy of the Indian Constitution in her hand.

Adhikari, on the other hand, led a rally named 'Parivartan Yatra' and covered a two-km distance from Sodepur to Agarpara in the northern fringes of the city as BJP activists in large numbers carried placards and shouted slogans slamming the TMC for opposing SIR and "passing off every death in Bengal as one caused by fear of SIR and deportation to detention camps".

At least two deaths by suicide were reported on Tuesday, one from Howrah and another from Murshidabad, where the deceased allegedly ended their lives on account of complications in electoral rolls and apprehension of deportation.

The alleged SIR-related death toll in Bengal currently stands at five although Mamata Banerjee claimed that seven people have already succumbed.

Jahir Mal, a resident of Khalisani in Uluberia, was found hanging at his residence. Police said that the family alleged that he was under severe stress after discovering a spelling error in one of his official documents and his visits to local offices concerned to rectify the mistake proved unsuccessful.

In Kandi, farmer Mohan Sheikh, died after consuming pesticide. His family alleged he was under stress for the past few days after finding his name missing from the 2002 rolls and apprehended deportation.

Holding the SIR exercise responsible for the panic, the Bengal CM alleged, "The BJP is behind this chaos. People are dying because of the fear they are spreading." Banerjee warned that the fall of the Narendra Modi government would be "inevitable" if even a single eligible voter was deleted from the state's rolls during the SIR.

"The BJP is conducting SIR in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, but not in Assam, Tripura or other northeastern states. Why this bias? This is discrimination aimed at helping the ruling party at the Centre," she thundered before a charged crowd.

Taking a swipe at Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, whom she mockingly called "kursi babu," Banerjee said, "In 2002, Bengal's last SIR took two years to complete. Why this rush now to finish it within a month? Only to make Modi Babu and Amit Shah happy?" Mocking the BJP's electoral strategy for West Bengal, the CM added: "If you think you can win 294 seats by cutting down 2-3 per cent votes, you are living in a fool's paradise." Speaking at the rally, Abhishek alleged that the BJP-led Centre was using the SIR to "intimidate and disenfranchise" voters, and warned of a massive protest in New Delhi over deaths reportedly linked to the exercise.

"The 2026 state polls isn't only about making Mamata Banerjee the chief minister four times in a row, it is also about reducing the BJP to zero," he said.

Adhikari, who commenced his rally from the area where one of the suicides took place, said the tragic death of the Agarpara resident last week was not related to any fear about SIR or NRC, as the person had voted in 2002 and had his name in the electoral rolls of that year.

He alleged the TMC was falsely linking his death with the SIR to derail the EC's process.

Daring the TMC to try to stop the exercise, Adhikari said, "Those whose parents have residential, birth proofs in India, need not worry." "If any more death is caused due to misplaced panic about SIR, the chief minister would be held responsible for every such death, and we will level charges against her for misleading people and causing the tragedies," he said.

Referring to reports of sudden attempts to cross over to Bangladesh by people on this side of the border, Adhikari said that the SIR was akin to use of carbolic acid to flush out snakes from their holes, equating "Bangladeshi/Rohingya illegal migrants" to the reptiles.

Adhikari mocked Banerjee's assertion in TMC's July 21 Martyrs' day rally of not allowing SIR in Bengal.

"The SIR exercise has started. You could not prevent it. Neither would you be able to save one bogus infiltrator voter from being identified and deported," he said. PTI PNT SUS SCH BSM ACD NN RG SMY NN