SIR needed to cleanse Bengal voter rolls of infiltrators, claims BJP's Sunil Bansal

Kolkata, Sep 3 (PTI) Senior BJP leader Sunil Bansal on Wednesday asserted that conducting a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in West Bengal would be a "Maha Sangram", but insisted the exercise was essential to ensure that infiltrators are removed from the voter list.

Addressing a programme in Kolkata on the theme of 'One Nation, One Election', the party's national general secretary accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of opposing the revision to safeguard "illegal voters" for political gains.

"The BJP has consistently worked to drive infiltrators out of the country. But some political parties want them protected and included in the electoral rolls because it serves their interests. Only Indian citizens are entitled to vote, and the Constitution makes this clear," Bansal said.

He pointed out that the Election Commission had already undertaken a similar SIR exercise in Bihar recently.

"Whenever SIR exercise begins in Bengal, it's going to be a Maha Sangram. We should be prepared for this," Bansal said.

"The first step towards removing infiltrators from the country is striking off their names from the voters' list. We have this opportunity now, those who are infiltrators have no right to vote. Only citizens of this country, and refugees who later became citizens, have the right to vote," he said.

Taking aim at opposition leaders, the BJP leader claimed TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee would be the "first to protest" if the names of such people were deleted from the rolls.

"Parties like the TMC, Congress and the RJD support infiltrators because they consider them a vote bank. If these infiltrators are not in the voter list, they will stop supporting them," he said.

Bansal also accused several INDIA bloc parties of "shielding non-citizens" holding voter IDs for electoral mileage, contending that their stand goes against the principle of free and fair elections.

Although the Election Commission has not yet made any formal announcement, there is growing speculation that a special revision of the electoral rolls in West Bengal may be conducted ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls, amid the BJP's repeated demand for such an exercise.

The SIR has already triggered political fireworks in Bihar, where the total electorate shrank from 7.9 crore to 7.24 crore after the first phase of the revision, after over 65 lakh names were excluded from the draft rolls.

The Election Commission had claimed that '22,34,501' people, registered in the electoral roll, were found to be dead during the exercise. Another 36.28 lakh have 'permanently shifted' out of the state or were 'not found' at their stated addresses, and another 7.01 lakh have been found enrolled at 'more than one place'.

The SIR was conducted smoothly in Bihar with 1.5 lakh BLAs in place, aided by cooperation between the ruling BJP-JD(U) alliance and the state machinery.

In West Bengal, the Mamata Banerjee government is expected to resist EC initiatives, viewing them as extensions of the Centre's "authoritarian overreach." The state has about 7.6 crore voters. PTI PNT NN