Mamata links three deaths to Bengal SIR, says it is NRC in disguise

New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has linked the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls to the NRC, using three recent tragedies in Bengal to make her case. 

In a post on X, she named 57-year-old Pradeep Kar of Panihati, North 24 Parganas, who died by suicide on October 27; a 63-year-old man from Dinhata, Cooch Behar, who allegedly attempted suicide on October 28 over a reported document mismatch; and 95-year-old Khitish Majumder, originally from Kotwali in Paschim Medinipur and living with his daughter in Ilambazar, Birbhum, who she said ended his life on October 29. 

We are witnessing the tragic consequences of the BJP’s politics of fear, division and hate. Within 72 hours of the Election Commission’s announcement of the SIR exercise in Bengal - An exercise bulldozed through at the BJP’s behest. One avoidable tragedy after another has…

— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) October 30, 2025

Police inquiries are underway, and the circumstances in each case will be established by investigation. However, Banerjee went ahead with her charges to grab the opportunity.

The charge that SIR is “NRC through the back door” does not align with what SIR is designed to do. 

SIR is a voter-roll verification drive under election law meant to update and clean the rolls, add eligible voters, correct entries, and remove duplicates, through house-to-house checks, public display of draft rolls, and a formal window for claims and objections. 

It verifies identity and residence for enrolment purposes; it does not adjudicate nationality, which is a separate legal process under citizenship law. 

Parties are expected to participate through their booth-level agents, and any addition or deletion can be challenged within set timelines.

Bihar’s recent SIR round is the reference the Commission is pointing to: wide coverage, digitised forms, scrutiny by party nominees, and a correction window before publication. 

West Bengal’s stakeholders can and should use the same safeguards, party oversight at the booth level, help desks for documentation issues, and time-bound disposal of objections, so that genuine voters are not left out and genuine errors are fixed quickly.

None of this reduces the human cost of the three incidents that have inflamed the debate. It does mean the political conversation should be responsible and evidence-led. 

Equating a roll-revision exercise with mass dispossession risks spreading panic among the elderly and vulnerable.