West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has launched a fierce attack on the BJP-led Indian government and the Election Commission of India (ECI), accusing them of turning the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists into a tool for “silent invisible rigging” ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls. Leading a massive rally from Dharmatala to Jorasanko — the ancestral home of poet Rabindranath Tagore — Mamata warned that the fall of Narendra Modi’s government would be “inevitable” if even a single genuine voter’s name was deleted from the rolls in West Bengal.

 Addressing thousands of Trinamool Congress (TMC) supporters, Mamata said the BJP and the ECI were “colluding to erase voters” from opposition-ruled states like West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, while sparing BJP-governed regions such as Assam and Tripura. “Why this discrimination? This is a politically motivated move to help the BJP before elections,” she said. The TMC chief accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, whom she mockingly called “kursi babu”, of working under political pressure. She questioned the haste in completing the SIR in a month when a similar exercise in 2002 had taken two years. 

“If even one genuine voter’s name is struck off, the BJP government will be shaken to its core,” she warned, amid loud cheers from the crowd. Banerjee slammed the BJP’s claims of “illegal voters” in Bengal, saying: “Just because someone speaks Bengali, does that make them Bangladeshi? Speaking Urdu doesn’t make anyone Pakistani. Bengal’s identity cannot be insulted like this.” She accused Indian Home Minister Amit Shah of hypocrisy, saying he attacked “dynastic politics” while promoting his own son.

Banerjee also likened the SIR chaos to the Centre’s demonetisation blunder, saying both had brought “fear, hardship and humiliation” to ordinary citizens. The Chief Minister alleged that BJP-backed officials were already deleting voters’ names in the name of “mapping”, leading to panic deaths in some areas. “People are dying due to the fear they are spreading,” she said. Banerjee also cautioned citizens against fake data collectors posing as bank employees in Diamond Harbour, saying, “Give your details only to official Booth Level Officers. We have set up a TMC helpdesk to assist people.” 

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)