'Never Seen Such Dishonest Election Commissioner': CM Mamata After Meeting CEC Gyanesh Kumar

Speaking outside the Election Commission of India office in Delhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also questioned the timing and intent of the SIR process.

West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee on Monday launched a sharp attack on the Election Commission of India over the SIR issue, accusing the poll body of being “arrogant and dishonest”. Speaking after meeting Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Banerjee alleged that voters’ names were being removed from electoral rolls in Bengal at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

She said she had never seen such an Election Commissioner before and claimed the process was being manipulated to favour the BJP. During the protest, the TMC supremo appeared in black attire outside the EC office, staging a symbolic demonstration against the alleged deletions.

‘SIR Should Not Target Poll-Bound States’

Speaking outside the Election Commission of India office in Delhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also questioned the timing and intent of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

She said the process should not have been carried out in election-bound states without proper planning, alleging selective implementation. Banerjee claimed SIR was conducted in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, but not in Assam, where the BJP is in power.

She alleged that nearly 58 lakh names had been removed in Bengal alone, calling the exercise “mismatched and mismapped”. The CM also criticised requirements such as producing parents’ birth certificates, saying such documentation was unrealistic given that many births in earlier decades took place at home rather than in hospitals.

‘Rights of Bengal’s People Cannot Be Crushed’

Banerjee was joined by TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, as the party stood beside families it said were affected by the SIR process.

The chief minister asserted that no pressure, authority or conspiracy could suppress the rights or dignity of Bengal’s people. She warned that her party would continue to resist any move that disenfranchises genuine voters.

Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Banerjee said authorities should first ask whether leaders themselves possess such documents before demanding them from ordinary citizens.