West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday (January 13, 2026) targeted the Election Commission, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the recent SIR in the state. He has alleged that the Election Commission is working under the puppet of BJP and is arbitrarily removing names from the voter list without giving any reason.
He said how can the Chief Election Commissioner decide whether half of the voter list should be removed and whose government should be formed. During the SIR, the Election Commission removed the names of married women who had changed their surnames. He said that the Election Commission is running on WhatsApp, changes are being made in the rules of SIR several times a day.
84 people have died so far due to SIR: CM Banerjee
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, while addressing the press conference organized regarding SIR, said, ‘Till this morning, 84 people have died. 4 people committed suicide and 17 people died due to brain stroke or heart stroke after receiving the SIR notice. The Election Commission should take responsibility for all these deaths. BJP should take responsibility for all these deaths, even Duryodhana and Dushasan should take responsibility for these deaths.
Election Commission is using BJP’s AI tool- Banerjee
He said, ‘At the behest of BJP, names are being removed through AI. The Election Commission used BJP’s AI-tool, which revealed the problem of mismatch of names in the SIR data. At the same time, BJP workers were also caught red-handed carrying large quantities of enumeration forms to remove names from the voter list. According to our information, there is a plan that people from Jharkhand, Bihar and Odisha will come to Bengal and vote.
VIDEO | West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial), addressing a press conference, said, “EC used BJP’s AI tools which accounted for mismatch of names in SIR data; logical discrepancy was not part of original SIR verification process, added as afterthought.”… pic.twitter.com/yRkfyfyAzG
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) January 13, 2026
Mamata Banerjee spoke on the use of micro observers
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, ‘If domicile certificate was allowed in Bihar, then why not in Bengal. As per SIR rules, the use of micro observers is prohibited, but they have been deployed only in Bengal. Finally a name has emerged, Micro Observer Haridas Shaw, who is a party worker of BJP.
“Some names were struck off, but all the names that were recorded have now been restored,” he said. Despite knowing who were being called for SIR hearing, lakhs of names were being registered by the DM and now they have been blocked.
(Report- with inputs from PTI)
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