West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday (December 22, 2025) launched a scathing attack on the Election Commission, alleging that there are huge errors in the draft lists published after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process of voter lists conducted so far in the state. While addressing the meeting of booth level workers of Trinamool Congress at Netaji Indoor Stadium here, Mamata Banerjee termed this exercise full of errors from beginning to end.
He alleged that the Election Commission was appointing observers without informing the state government and was working to further the interests of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He claimed, ‘The Election Commission is working only on the instructions of the BJP.’ Mamata Banerjee said that huge errors have been made in the mapping of voters during the counting phase of the SIR process in the state.
Mamata Banerjee alleged that names of thousands of correct voters have been removed from the draft lists. He said, ‘We don’t know how the problems of so many genuine voters can be solved in such a short time.’ In West Bengal, 58,20,899 names have been removed from the draft voter lists published after the counting phase and the number of voters in the state has come down to 7.08 crore.
About 1.36 crore names have been marked due to logical discrepancies, while 30 lakh voters have been put in the ‘unmapped’ category. Many of these people may be called for verification hearing in the next 45 days. The Trinamool chief also claimed that the central officials appointed as micro observers for the SIR hearing have little knowledge of the local language and are ineligible to conduct verification during the second phase of the vetting process.
Mamata Banerjee said, ‘Many central agencies have played a role in appointing BLOs. They have also appointed supervisors without our knowledge. The state will provide them full cooperation, but I need to know the details of all these people, including where they live and in which departments they work. The Chief Minister accused the Election Commission of forcibly completing this exercise in two months before the assembly elections, which takes two years.
She said, ‘I have never seen such a shameless commission before, nor do I want to see the current commission again in the future.’ Without directly mentioning her Bhawanipur assembly constituency in South Kolkata, Mamata Banerjee said, ‘Recent delimitation took place in many wards of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, due to which many addresses were changed. This led to incorrect mapping in the SIR lists. This is not the fault of the BLO, it is the fault of the Commission.
He told his party workers, ‘Efforts are being made to include names of outsiders in the voter lists. You have to be alert and identify these people and lodge an objection. Mamata Banerjee also assured the people of Matua community and minority communities not to worry about being deprived of voting rights.
He alleged, ‘BJP is trying to create division among Muslims in Bengal. She is trying to divide the community. Mamta Banerjee said that not the leaders but only the grassroots level Trinamool workers can stop the BJP from gaining a foothold in Bengal. He asked the party supporters to completely resist the devious moves of the saffron camp to capture power in the state. The Chief Minister said, ‘We will capture Delhi after saving Bengal from the clutches of BJP.’
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