A day after lambasting the Election Commission of India for its “inhuman and unplanned” execution of special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, “inflicting distress, death” and “inaccuracy” in voters’ lists, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday shot off a letter to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, requesting him to immediately halt SIR and “thoroughly reassess the present methodology and timelines.”
Banerjee wrote that under extreme pressure and fear of disciplinary action, the BLOs were ending up submitting incorrect and incomplete entries, which could disenfranchise genuine voters, “eroding the integrity of electoral rolls.”
Accusing the office of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of “intimidation” instead of offering assistance to the BLOs, many of whom were not properly trained, Banerjee said such actions were triggering health issues and even suicides.
“Show-cause notices are being issued without justification. BLOs — already stretched and distressed — are being threatened with severe disciplinary action simply because the Commission refuses to acknowledge the reality on the ground,” the Chief Minister wrote, adding “the human cost of this mismanagement” was becoming “unbearable.”
She showed how on Wednesday, “an anganwadi worker serving as a BLO in Mal, Jalpaiguri, died by suicide,” because she was not able to cope with the SIR pressure.”
Banerjee’s letter coincides with two more reports of hospitalisation of BLOs — one at Konnagar in Hooghly district and the other at Raiganj in North Bengal. In both cases, the BLOs who had not been relieved of their duties suffered “strokes”, their family members said.
Several had fallen ill, and “several others have lost their lives since this process began. A revision that previously required three years is now being forcibly compressed into three months,” Banerjee lamented, adding, “At this pace, it is almost certain that by December 4, voter data across multiple constituencies cannot be uploaded while maintaining required accuracy.”
Requesting the CEC to halt the process at least temporarily, Banerjee wrote, “Kindly intervene decisively to halt the ongoing exercise, stop coercive measures, provide proper training and support… If this path is not corrected without delay, the consequences—for the system, the officials, and the citizens—will be irreversible.”
The Chief Minister claimed that she had repeatedly expressed her concerns about a hastily conducted SIR that could disenfranchise genuine voters. “I have time and again flagged my serious concerns” regarding the way the SIR had been “thrust upon the people,” Banerjee said, adding how she was “compelled to write to you as the situation surrounding the ongoing SIR has reached a deeply alarming stage.
The manner in which this exercise is being forced upon officials and citizens is not only unplanned and chaotic but also dangerous… Critical gaps in training, lack of clarity on mandatory documentation and the near-impossibility of meeting voters in the midst of their livelihood schedules have made the exercise structurally unsound.” The Chief Minister, however, praised the BLOs for “operating far beyond human limits.”
Reacting to Banerjee’s claims in the letter, senior State BJP leader Rahul Sinha reminded how more than 99 per cent of the distribution of enumeration forms had been completed. “She is unnecessarily challenging the capabilities of the BLOs, who are efficient and sincere. But for the threats that are being issued by the TMC goons … the Chief Minister should, instead of writing such letters, tell the security forces to control the TMC goons who are disturbing the BLOs from performing their duties.”
Senior Congress leader Adhir Chowdhury, on the other hand, alleged that by writing the letter, the Chief Minister was only trying to cover up her culpability in the “whole game plan”.
He said, “Mamata Banerjee knows that apart from the BJP, the SIR is going to benefit her Trinamool Congress the most, as all the BLOs have been chosen by her party men, and they are her men … they will delete and include names on behalf of the TMC. Initially, she shouted in public that she would not allow SIR to take place, and now she has allowed her men to take part in the process, and when she is seeing that the minority population is getting restive, she is playing this drama.”
Mamata Shielding fraudulent voter base for political survival: BJP
New Delhi: The BJP on Thursday alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was complaining against the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls and resorting to dramatics over it because her political survival depends on “shielding” a voter base created “fraudulently”.
The assertion came after Banerjee, who is also the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo, wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) exercise in the state was being conducted in an “unplanned and coercive” manner, putting citizens and officials at risk. She also claimed that the SIR exercise has reached an “alarming” and a “dangerous” stage, and demanded an “immediate corrective action”. BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari termed Banerjee’s letter to the chief election commissioner “signs of desperation” and accused her of trying to halt the voter roll cleanup exercise to shield the “very ecosystem that kept it in power.” “Mamata Banerjee writing a letter to the Election Commission on halting the SIR exercise is nothing short of an admission that the TMC’s top leadership is rattled. For years, TMC quietly benefited from illegal infiltration and bogus voters,” Bhandari alleged in a post on X. “Now that the voter list is being cleaned through SIR and fake entries are being removed, Mamata is panicking. A nervous, desperate TMC is trying to shield the very ecosystem that kept it in power,” he added.
BJP co-incharge for West Bengal Amit Malviya claimed that Banerjee will continue to complain and dramatise the SIR process because she knows “the noose is tightening” and she risks being defeated in the 2026 assembly polls.
“Her political survival depends on shielding a voter base created through fraudulent and illegal means,” he charged, adding, “In 2026, West Bengal will elect a chief minister for the state, not someone who behaves as though she is the provincial leader of East Pakistan.”
Malviya said India shares its international land borders with seven countries, stretching a total of about 15,106.7 km. The longest of these is the boundary with Bangladesh, extending 4,096.7 km, touching West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram, he pointed out.
The BSF guards this entire stretch, yet West Bengal has witnessed the “highest levels of illegal infiltration”, he claimed.
“The reason is clear: Mamata Banerjee’s administration has repeatedly been accused of enabling this infiltration -- facilitating documentation, providing cover, and settling infiltrators in electorally strategic areas,” the BJP leader added.
Malviya claimed the ruling TMC’s mandate rests “heavily” on the seats it wins in the Kolkata Presidency region, which includes Kolkata, and parts of South and North 24 Parganas.
These are also the areas that have seen “maximum infiltration and the highest concentration of fake voters”, he claimed.
“This region consistently witnesses widespread violence during elections, and the notorious Diamond Harbour is part of it,” Madviya alleged.