The Trinamool Congress doubled down on its calls for a major meeting with the Election Commission on Tuesday — seeking permission for a delegation of 10 MPs. The rejoinder came soon after the poll body issued a notice greenlighting talks with four lawmakers to discuss the ongoing revision of voter rolls. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also been vocal in her criticism of the process — leading a protest march and anti-SIR rallies on Tuesday afternoon.
‘Why is EC scared to…?’
“If the Election Commission is genuinely transparent, why is it scared to face just 10 MPs ? Hold the meeting openly. Telecast it live and answer the five straightforward, legitimate questions that the AITC will place before you. Is the Election Commission willing to prove its transparency or does it only function behind closed doors?” asked senior party leader Abhishek Banerjee.
He also lashed out “selective leaks portraying the EC as ‘transparent’ and ‘cordial’ — insisting that it was “nothing but a manufactured facade”. His remarks were also echoed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during a rally on Tuesday afternoon. The TMC supremo said she would support the SIR if it was conducted over “two or three years” and wondered why the exercise was being “rushed coercively within two months” ahead of the 2026 Bengal assembly polls.
Mamata Banerjee leads anti-SIR rally
The CM lashed out at the “chaotic” SIR process on Tuesday and insisted that the poll body had turned into “a BJP Commission”. Banerjee claimed that 35 to 36 deaths had already been linked to panic surrounding the voter revision exercise and issued an appeal for people to “not die by suicide under the fear of SIR”. She accused the EC was acting upon “instructions from Delhi” — contending that it would use “AI as a tool for manipulation”. The CM insisted that the draft rolls would show “the disastrous situation created by the Election Commission and the BJP”.
Banerjee added during a rally in Bongaon that voters in Matua-majority areas of the state would be “immediately delisted” if they declared themselves foreigners under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. She vowed to “shake” the BJP foundation across the country if she was challenged in Bengal.
“I am making this prediction… the BJP is going to be defeated in Gujarat (Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state). To win Bengal they will lose Gujarat,” she said.