Mamata to begin stir against voter roll cuts, revives street-fighter politics ahead of Bengal polls

Kolkata, Mar 5 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will return to one of her most familiar political arenas -- the streets -- on Friday, beginning a dharna at Kolkata's Metro Channel against what the TMC alleges are "arbitrary deletions" in the state's revised electoral rolls following the SIR.

The sit-in protest, scheduled from 2 pm at the Esplanade Metro Channel, was announced by TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday, who accused the Election Commission of carrying out a politically motivated exercise that could disenfranchise lakhs of legitimate voters months ahead of the Assembly elections.

"She will announce our next line of action from the venue. We are against this SIR, in which legitimate voters have been deleted," he had said.

The protest marks a dramatic political escalation by the ruling party just days after the Election Commission published the post-SIR electoral rolls, which have significantly redrawn the contours of the state's electorate.

According to official data released on Saturday, 63.66 lakh names, around 8.3 per cent of the electorate, have been deleted since the SIR process began in November last year, reducing the voter base from about 7.66 crore to just over 7.04 crore.

In addition, over 60.06 lakh electors have been placed under the "under adjudication" category, meaning their eligibility will be determined through legal scrutiny in the coming weeks, a process that could further reshape constituency-level electoral equations.

The TMC, however, has rejected the exercise as politically motivated.

Party leaders have alleged that minority voters, migrant workers and economically marginalised sections have been disproportionately affected by the deletions.

Abhishek Banerjee escalated the attack on the Election Commission, alleging that the "target of deleting over one crore voters was decided even before the exercise began".

He claimed that the revisions were aimed at influencing the political balance in the state ahead of the Assembly elections.

TMC leaders have also pointed to instances where several prominent figures, including senior bureaucrats and elected representatives, reportedly appeared under the "under adjudication" category, questioning the credibility of the process.

For Mamata Banerjee, the decision to take the battle to the streets is also a return to a political style that shaped her rise.

Long before she became chief minister in 2011, the pavements of Kolkata, particularly the Metro Channel, served as the stage where Banerjee built her image as a relentless street fighter challenging the then-dominant Left Front.

One of the most defining moments came on December 4, 2006, when she began an indefinite hunger strike at the same Metro Channel protesting the acquisition of agricultural land in Singur for the Tata Motors small car project.

The fast lasted 26 days and transformed the Singur agitation into a national political issue, galvanising farmers' protests and denting the aura of invincibility surrounding the Left Front government led by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

The agitation later became one of the key political milestones that paved the way for the TMC to end 34 years of Left rule in the 2011 Assembly elections.

Even after becoming chief minister, Banerjee has occasionally stepped out of the administrative role to reclaim the politics of agitation.

In February 2019, she staged a high-profile dharna in Kolkata, accusing the Centre of attempting to undermine the federal structure after the CBI sought to question then Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with the Saradha chit fund probe.

More recently, in 2024, just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, she held a three-day dharna at Red Road against the Centre's decision to withhold funds meant for the state under various welfare schemes.

Political observers see the latest dharna as an attempt by Banerjee to reframe the voter list controversy into a larger political narrative centred on democratic rights and electoral integrity.

By personally leading the protest, the chief minister appears to be signalling that the voter roll issue will form a central political plank for the TMC as the state heads towards the Assembly polls in April.

TMC leaders indicated that Friday's dharna could also serve as the launchpad for a broader agitation across the state if the Election Commission does not address the party's concerns over the deletions.

For Banerjee, who has repeatedly oscillated between the roles of administrator and agitator, the Metro Channel protest once again revives the political grammar that defined her rise, street mobilisation as both a symbol of resistance and a tool of electoral politics in Bengal. PTI PNT MNB