Kolkata, Dec 22: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday lashed out at the Election Commission, alleging that there were “gross errors” in the draft rolls published following the enumeration phase of the SIR in the state.
Addressing a meeting of TMC’s Booth Level Agents (BLAs) at the Netaji Indoor Stadium here, she dubbed it an exercise “riddled with blunders from A to Z”.
Banerjee also accused the poll panel of housing “a BJP agent in its office” and “altering electoral rolls as per his advise”.
She alleged that the EC was appointing observers without informing the state government, and working to foster the interests of the saffron camp.
“The EC is working only as per the directions of the BJP. There are gross errors in mapping of voters during the enumeration phase of the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise in the state. The exercise is a blunder from beginning to end,” the CM asserted.
Alleging that thousands of “legitimate voters” have found their names deleted from the draft rolls, Banerjee said, “We don’t know how the problems of so many genuine electors can be solved in so little time.”
“I am told that a BJP agent is sitting in the EC office, and it is deleting names as per his wishes. I have never seen such a shameless commission in the past, nor do I want to see a repeat of this current poll body in the future,” she said.
In the draft electoral rolls published after the enumeration phase, 58,20,899 names have been excluded, reducing the electorate to 7.08 crore in West Bengal.
Around 1.36 crore entries have also been flagged for “logical discrepancies”, while 30 lakh voters were categorised as unmapped – a significant percentage of whom are likely to be called for verification hearings.
The TMC supremo also asserted that central officers who have been appointed micro observers for SIR hearings have “little knowledge” of the local language, and are “unfit” to conduct hearings.
“Several central agencies have played a role in appointing BLOs. They have also appointed observers without our knowledge. The state will extend all cooperation to them, but I must know the details of all these people, including where they live and which departments they serve.”
The chief minister accused the EC of “forcefully” conducting the exercise, “which takes two years to complete”, within two months, ahead of the assembly elections, so that the state is unable to carry out its development activities.
Banerjee warned the BLAs that “indiscriminate” use of AI in mapping of rolls has also resulted in wrongful deletions.
“Tomorrow, when I reach my polling station, I may find they have included another Mamata Banerjee in that booth and my name stands missing,” she said.
Without directly referring to Banerjee’s own Bhabanipur assembly seat in south Kolkata from where nearly 45,000 names were deleted in the draft rolls, Banerjee said, “Several wards in the Kolkata municipal area underwent delimitations recently on account of which many addresses were realigned. That led to faulty mapping in the SIR rolls. This isn’t BLO fault, it’s an error of the commission”.
The CM also alleged that a significant number of deletions took place in the draft rolls on account of name mismatch triggered by spelling variations in rolls prepared in Bengali and English, which the enumeration software couldn’t reconcile.
“In many cases, names of women were deleted because they had changed their surnames post marriage,” she claimed.
At the gathering of about 14,000 BLAs of the TMC from Kolkata and adjacent areas, Banerjee instructed party workers to reach out to all voters whose names have been erroneously deleted, and to remain vigilant about “outsiders trying to get their names included”.
“Our BLAs must reach voters at block levels, help them in filing their claims and objections and assist them during hearing sessions. Our councilors must assist the BLAs, wherever required. We will take strong action against councilors, who will remain inactive during this phase.
“Outsiders are attempting to get their names included in voters’ lists. You must remain vigilant, identify these people and raise objections,” she said.
Banerjee also reassured the Matua community members, and those belonging to minority communities to not worry about disenfranchisement.
“The BJP is trying to drive a wedge through the Muslims in Bengal and divide the community,” she alleged.
Meanwhile, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, claimed that Banerjee’s allegations indicated that she was “unsettled” by the SIR exercise.
Stressing that the exercise was being conducted in a transparent manner, Adhikari said that Banerjee’s objections were not finding acceptance among the people.
“The CM’s holding of a meeting with TMC BLAs has made it apparent that she is unsettled by the SIR,” Adhikari told reporters outside the assembly.
Maintaining that days are numbered for the TMC government, the Nandigram MLA said “Banerjee will become a former chief minister after the April (2026) elections.”
Regarding the claim that micro observers for the SIR are being brought from other states, Adhikari said, “I challenge her to show even one out of the 3,000 micro observers is from another state, and I will apologise to people. But, if she is proven wrong, she should ask for forgiveness.”
He also alleged that Banerjee was unhappy over the appointment of special observers without consulting the state government, as she “missed the opportunity of posting bureaucrats loyal to her for the job”. (PTI)
