'Will Expose BJP-EC Conspiracy To Disenfranchise Bengali Voters': Mamata Banerjee Begins Sit-In Protest Over SIR

By Surajit Dutta

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee on Friday began a sit-in protest against the alleged voter roll deletions through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Election Commission (EC) of conspiring to “disenfranchise Bengali voters” and vowed to expose them.

At the beginning of the protest, Banerjee said, "I will expose the BJP-EC conspiracy to disenfranchise Bengali voters.”

She alleged that several voters had been wrongly marked as deceased in the revised electoral rolls and she would present those voters here.

The sit-in protest, which started from 2.15 pm in central Kolkata, was announced earlier by TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who had accused the poll panel of carrying out a “politically motivated” exercise that could disenfranchise lakhs of legitimate voters.

The protest marks a sharp political escalation by the ruling party, days after the Election Commission published the post-SIR electoral rolls, which have significantly altered the contours of the state’s electorate ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections.

Official figures released on February 28 states, as many as 63.66 lakh names, which is around 8.3 percent of the electorate, have been deleted since the SIR process began in November last year, reducing the voter base from about 7.66 crore to just over 7.04 crore.

This apart, more than 60.06 lakh electors have been placed under the “under adjudication” category, meaning their eligibility will be determined through legal scrutiny in the coming weeks, a process that could further reshape constituency-level electoral equations.

With elections approaching, the SIR controversy has already raised temperatures in West Bengal's politics. If Banerjee's protest evolves into a sustained agitation, it could set the tone for an increasingly confrontational campaign in the months ahead, with the ruling party seeking to turn the controversy into a broader political debate with its opponents.

The choice of Metro Channel as the protest venue carries a strong political symbolism. The Esplanade stretch has historically served as a prominent site for political demonstrations, and Banerjee herself had staged a high-profile dharna at the same venue during the agitation against the proposed small car factory of Tata Motors at Singur.

That movement eventually became one of the defining political turning points in West Bengal, helping the Trinamool consolidate mass support and ultimately dislodge the decades-old rule of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)–led Left Front.

Party leaders say the present protest is being crafted with a similar political message that electoral rights, much like the land agitation in Singur, are being projected as a people’s issue rather than a purely institutional dispute. Trinamool strategists believe such mobilisation could resonate with voters if the voter list controversy continues to dominate political discourse in the coming days.

Banerjee has also personally taken the fight beyond the streets. In a rare move for a sitting Chief Minister, she donned the advocate's gown to argue against the SIR-related concerns before the Supreme Court, projecting herself as directly challenging what the party describes as an unfair electoral process.

Also Read:

1. West Bengal Govt's 'Sarasari Mukhyamantri' Instagram Account Hacked, Police Complaint Filed
2. EC-BJP Nexus Behind Deletions In Bengal's Final Electoral Rolls Post SIR: Mamata