Mamata to meet TMC booth agents in Kolkata as SIR deletions spark unease

Kolkata, Dec 17 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee will address a mega meeting of the party’s booth-level agents (BLAs) here on Monday to chart its voter-list strategy for the second phase of the SIR, with over 58 lakh names struck off the state’s draft electoral rolls, party sources said.

Amid mounting political unease over the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR), the meeting scheduled at Netaji Indoor Stadium here is aimed at strengthening the role of booth-level party workers in claims and objections, ground-level verification and voter assistance during hearings.

According to TMC sources, while the party has around 69,000 BLAs across the state, the proposed meeting will primarily involve booth-level agents and local leaders from Kolkata and surrounding districts, along with those holding organisational responsibilities.

The meeting follows a closed-door interaction on Wednesday evening with BLAs and workers from the Bhabanipur assembly constituency, after nearly 45,000 voters were struck off the draft rolls there.

A senior south Kolkata TMC leader said the party leadership, during that meeting, decided to convene a wider interaction with booth-level agents.

“The chief minister is expected to give clear directions on booth-level data verification, assistance to voters during the claims and objections process, and coordination with Election Commission officials,” the leader said.

Party sources said Banerjee is also likely to stress that voters should not face unnecessary harassment during hearings, and that booth workers must proactively help people with documentation, form-filling and follow-up.

The Election Commission on Tuesday published West Bengal’s draft electoral rolls following the SIR exercise, deleting 58,20,899 names on grounds including death, permanent migration, duplication and non-submission of enumeration forms, shrinking the electorate from 7.66 crore to 7.08 crore ahead of the 2026 assembly polls.

The scale of deletions has triggered sharp political reactions, particularly in urban and high-profile constituencies.

In Bhabanipur, the chief minister’s own seat, 44,787 voters, or nearly 21.7 per cent of the electorate, were deleted, with the number of electors dropping from 2,06,295 in January to 1,61,509 in the draft rolls.

The TMC has voiced strong dissatisfaction over many voters being marked “dead”, “shifted” or “absent”, and has instructed its booth-level agents to conduct fresh, door-to-door verification of deleted names.

“The party leadership has made it clear that no valid voter’s name should be deleted under any circumstances. Every deleted name must be physically verified,” a TMC source said.

With the hearing process on claims and objections expected to begin shortly, the party has directed local units to stand by affected voters and continue running neighbourhood-level ‘May I Help You’ camps to assist people during verification, including home visits if required.

The developments in Bhabanipur reflect a wider pattern across south Kolkata, where four politically significant assembly segments- Bhabanipur, Kolkata Port, Ballygunge and Rashbehari- together recorded over 2.16 lakh deletions, nearly 24 per cent of their combined electorate of about 9.07 lakh at the start of the SIR exercise.

TMC leaders view Monday’s Netaji Indoor Stadium meeting as a key organisational step to mobilise booth-level machinery as voter list revision emerges as a major political flashpoint ahead of the 2026 assembly elections. PTI PNT BDC