Mamata writes to CEC, urges him to halt 'chaotic, coercive' SIR of voter rolls
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Kolkata (PTI): Upping the ante on SIR, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote a strongly worded letter to CEC Gyanesh Kumar on Thursday, asking him to immediately halt the exercise that she claimed was "chaotic, coercive and dangerous".
Banerjee mentioned that she has "time and again" raised concerns over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in the state and is now "compelled to write" to the chief election commissioner because the situation has reached a "deeply alarming stage".
She alleged that the SIR in Bengal is being carried out in an “unplanned, dangerous” manner that has “crippled the process from day one”.
The chief minister accused the Election Commission of thrusting the SIR upon officials and citizens "without basic preparedness, adequate planning or clear communication", claiming that critical gaps in training, confusion over mandatory documents and the "near-impossibility" of BLOs meeting voters during working hours had rendered the entire exercise “structurally unsound”.
She urged the CEC to “intervene decisively” to halt the ongoing exercise, stop "coercive" measures, provide proper training and support, and “thoroughly reassess” the present methodology and timelines.
“If this path is not corrected without delay, the consequences for the system, the officials and the citizens will be irreversible,” she wrote, calling this a moment that demands “responsibility, humanity and decisive corrective action”.
The three-page letter, among her strongest yet, painted a grim portrait of booth-level officers stretched “far beyond human limits”.
“They are expected to manage their principal duties, many being teachers and frontline workers, while simultaneously conducting door-to-door surveys and handling complex e-submissions,” she wrote, adding that most were struggling with online forms due to lack of training, server failures and repeated data mismatches.
The consequence, she warned, is a "looming breakdown".
“At this pace, it is almost certain that by December 4, voter data across multiple constituencies cannot be uploaded with required accuracy," Banerjee said.
Under extreme pressure and “fear of punitive action”, many BLOs were being pushed into filing incorrect or incomplete entries, risking disenfranchisement of genuine voters and “eroding the integrity of the electoral roll”.
Banerjee reserved some of her sharpest criticism for what she described as the Election Commission’s “indefensible” response, not support, but “intimidation”.
She alleged that the Office of the CEO, West Bengal, was issuing show-cause notices “without justification”, threatening already strained BLOs with disciplinary action instead of acknowledging “the reality on the ground”.
Compounding the strain, Banerjee wrote, was the timing of the SIR. Bengal is at the peak of paddy harvest and in the middle of Rabi sowing, a strictly time-bound window, especially for potato cultivation, she said.
"Millions of farmers and labourers are engaged in essential agricultural work and cannot be expected to abandon the fields to participate in SIR enumeration,” she said.
But it was the human cost that Banerjee described as “now unbearable”.
She cited the suicide of an anganwadi worker serving as a BLO in Jalpaiguri district's Mal area, reportedly under “crushing SIR-related pressure”, adding that “several others have lost their lives since this process began”.
A voter roll revision that earlier took three years, she said, had been “forcibly compressed into three months”, creating “inhuman working conditions” and a climate of “fear and uncertainty”.
The chief minister warned that continuing with the “unplanned, coercive drive” would not only endanger more lives but also “jeopardise the legitimacy of the electoral revision itself”.
The Election Commission is yet to respond to the chief minister’s latest salvo, even as the political temperature around the SIR, once a routine administrative exercise, continues to climb amid charges of overreach, coercion and chaos.
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Delhi CM Rekha Gupta accuses Mamata Banerjee of stalling SIR; TMC hits back
Kolkata (PTI): Alleging that her West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee had approached the Supreme Court to stall the SIR exercise to prevent the identification of infiltrators, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Sunday claimed that the people of the state have made up their minds to dislodge the Trinamool Congress from power.
The TMC countered strongly, urging Gupta to "look into her own backyard" and accused her of making absurd allegations against the TMC government without checking facts.
Addressing participants at the 'Nari Sankalp Yatra' organised by the BJP's women's wing at Science City auditorium here, Gupta alleged that the "hands-off" and appeasement policies of the TMC government had allowed thousands of infiltrators to enter the state in recent years.
She claimed that this had put a strain on basic rights such as access to water, electricity, ration, education, livelihood and the right to vote for genuine citizens.
"She wants to perpetuate this and hence is trying to stall the SIR exercise, which aims at identifying and deporting infiltrators. Imagine a chief minister going to the apex court to argue against an exercise meant to ensure free and fair polls," Gupta said.
The BJP leader alleged that appeasement politics had reached an "alarming level" under the TMC regime.
Raising concerns over women's safety, she claimed that women in the state were not secure despite having a woman chief minister.
Referring to the rape-murder of a woman doctor at RG Kar Hospital, Gupta alleged that the state government had failed to respond adequately to such crimes.
She also referred to the alleged rape of a woman medic in Durgapur and another law student on a Kolkata college campus, claiming that criminals had been emboldened to commit brutalities against women.
She alleged that in crimes against women, overall crime incidents and child marriages, West Bengal remained among the top -- "a slur on a state which once led intellectual and social movements and set examples for the rest of the country," she said.
Criticising the state government's welfare initiatives, she said schemes such as Kanyashree were built on "false claims" and asserted that women needed security rather than assurances.
Accusing the state government of blocking central schemes, Gupta alleged that funds worth "lakhs of crores of rupees" had not reached the poor due to non-implementation of programmes such as Ayushman Bharat, PM Awas Yojana and Jal Jeevan Mission by the state.
"You are only interested in renaming projects and taking credit," she said.
Gupta also alleged that the education sector in the state had been adversely affected, saying several state-run schools had closed due to a shortage of teachers and that the government was opposed to the National Education Policy.
Drawing a comparison with BJP-ruled Delhi, Gupta said, "People have already voted out 'Bhaia' (a reference to former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal). Now it is your turn to bid farewell to 'Didi'." Calling upon women to resist what she termed "strong-arm tactics", she urged them to assert their strength, invoking the imagery of Goddess Durga.
"Bengal has the right to live with dignity, and women have the right to live with dignity," she added.
Reacting to Gupta's allegations, West Bengal Women and Child Welfare minister Shashi Panja accused her of making "absurd allegations" against the Trinamool Congress government ahead of elections.
Panja alleged that during Gupta's tenure in Delhi, several incidents had raised serious concerns, including reports of missing young women and a blast near the Red Fort.
She also criticised the air pollution situation in the national capital, claiming that people were struggling to breathe.
The TMC leader said that despite being in power for a year, Gupta was making "tall claims" instead of addressing key issues in Delhi.
Panja further alleged that the Delhi CM visited West Bengal during elections to "peddle false allegations" against the state government.
Rebutting Gupta, the TMC said in a post on X said, "Madam why did you go off-script again? For your edification, here are the cold, hard facts: In total cases of crimes (IPC + SLL), Bengal ranks a respectable 15th, far safer than BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Gujarat, which languish near the bottom."
"In overall crime rate, Bengal sits comfortably at 28th. Who's second? Your own Delhi. Double Engine Gujarat and Haryana grab 4th and 5th as top-tier crime havens," the TMC said.
"In child marriage, Assam again takes the shameful pole position. And yet you dare lecture Bengal? Stop embarrassing yourself, stop the hypocrisy, and maybe fix the rotting mess in your own backyard before pointing fingers at a state that's outperforming your disasters on every key metric," the TMC countered.
