Mamata says will move court against SIR on Jan 6, alleges EC exercise has triggered harassment, administrative arbitrariness; BJP hits back

Kolkata/Gangasagar, Jan 5 (PTI) Exacerbating an already bitter confrontation ahead of the assembly elections, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday announced that she would move court against the SIR of electoral rolls in West Bengal, alleging that the exercise has triggered fear, harassment, and administrative arbitrariness, leading to deaths, hospitalisations, and suicide attempts.

What began as a technical exercise to cleanse electoral rolls, the Special Intensive Revision has snowballed into one of West Bengal’s fiercest political confrontations in recent years, with the ruling TMC and the opposition BJP in the state locked in verbal battle over allegations of voter manipulation ahead of the high-stakes assembly polls, scheduled to be held in the next three months.

Addressing a public distribution programme at Sagar Island in South 24 Parganas, which is among the worst-hit districts in the first phase of the SIR, Banerjee intensified her attack against the Election Commission, alleging that it used opaque digital processes, including artificial intelligence and informal platforms, to arbitrarily delete names from electoral rolls, undermining democratic safeguards.

"This is a fight for existence. We are seeking legal help. So many people have died due to SIR. We are moving court tomorrow against the inhumane treatment and the death of so many people due to the SIR," she said.

"If necessary, I will go to the Supreme Court and plead for the people as an ordinary citizen. I will speak for the people," she added.

While she did not clarify whether the petition would be filed by the state government, or her party -TMC, Banerjee said she would seek permission to appear before the Supreme Court not as a lawyer but as an ordinary citizen, asserting that she is legally trained.

The BJP hit back sharply, accusing Banerjee of trying to derail a long-overdue clean-up of voter lists and vowing to stand firmly with the EC, turning the SIR into a flashpoint that now combines legal action, political brinkmanship, and disturbing accounts of human distress from the ground.

Alleging a "technological conspiracy", the TMC supremo said routine life events were being "weaponised" to disenfranchise voters."Names are being removed using AI,” she alleged.

"AI is deciding whose surname has changed, who got married, which girl has gone to her in-laws’ house. Even a murderer gets a chance to defend himself. Here, people’s names are being removed," she claimed.

Banerjee argued that minor spelling mismatches, address changes, or marriage were being cited to strike off names, often without adequate opportunity to respond through statutory forms.  She also alleged that even valid government-issued documents, including caste certificates, were being ignored.

Banerjee's fresh salvo came a day after her scathing letter, dated January 3, to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the third in less than two months, urging an immediate halt to what she described as an "arbitrary and flawed" process.

In the letter, she warned that the continuation of the SIR in its present form could trigger "mass disenfranchisement" and "strike at the foundations of democracy", accusing the commission of an "unplanned, ill-prepared and ad hoc" exercise marred by "serious irregularities, procedural violations and administrative lapses".

The BJP, however, has closed ranks around the poll body.

Reacting to Banerjee’s announcement, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said she was free to approach the judiciary but would not be able to "protect infiltrators who are the TMC’s core vote bank".

In a letter to the chief election commissioner, Adhikari accused Banerjee of political desperation and of attempting to derail an exercise that could expose electoral malfeasance allegedly “nurtured and exploited” by the TMC for years.

"The SIR is not, as she falsely portrays, an ‘unplanned, ill-prepared and ad hoc’ farce, but a meticulously orchestrated national initiative aimed at purging the system of duplicate, bogus and ineligible entries," Adhikari said in the letter.

He also urged the commission to continue the revision "undaunted, fortified by the unwavering support of the democratic masses".

He dismissed allegations of widespread hardship as exaggerated propaganda, defended document checks for logical discrepancies as a "gold standard for accuracy", and justified the use of platforms like WhatsApp as supplementary tools consistent with modern administrative practices.  Adhikari also accused the state administration and TMC cadres of intimidating field officials and spreading misinformation to derail the process.

"Far from eroding public confidence, the SIR has been met with resounding support from the vast majority of West Bengal’s people, who view it as a long overdue cleansing," he claimed.

The chief minister cited what she described as grim ground realities emerging from the second phase of the SIR, which began on December 27.

"People above 85 years, pregnant women, those on oxygen support are being summoned...After living in this country for so long, do they still need to prove they are voters and citizens? "In two months, nearly 70 people have died. Does it cause no heart ache? If your 85-year-old mother were dragged into an ambulance, what answer would Delhi’s leaders give?" Banerjee said and questioned whether those directing the exercise had ensured their own parents possessed all the required certificates.

Her allegations come against the backdrop of stark numbers released by the Election Commission.

On December 16, after the first phase of the SIR, the draft electoral roll showed the electorate shrinking from 7.66 crore to 7.08 crore, with over 58 lakh names deleted. The second phase involves hearings of 1.67 crore electors under scrutiny, 1.36 crore flagged for logical discrepancies, and 31 lakh whose records lack mapping.

The Election Commission has rejected allegations of arbitrariness, maintaining that the SIR is a routine exercise aimed at ensuring clean and accurate electoral rolls.

On the ground, the SIR has become far more than a technical exercise. Across rural and urban Bengal, block offices have turned into sites of anxiety and distress, with elderly, disabled, and vulnerable voters enduring long journeys, physical hardship, and loss of livelihood to prove they are "legitimate" electors.

From octogenarians arriving on stretchers or leaning on relatives, to persons with severe disabilities crawling across office floors, to daily wage earners forfeiting income out of fear that their names may be struck off, scenes at hearing centres have sharpened political fault lines.

Critics argue that these images belie official claims of a routine administrative clean-up.

With the chief minister set to move court and the BJP digging in to defend the exercise as essential to the sanctity of the ballot, the challenge for the administration now lies in balancing electoral integrity with public trust at a time when both appear increasingly fragile. PTI PNT AMR BSM SMY SOM NN PNT PYK