Kolkata, Oct 28 (PTI) TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday launched a blistering attack on the BJP-led Centre and the ECI over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bengal, alleging the exercise was a “backdoor NRC” aimed at deleting genuine voters ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls.
Claiming that the ECI had turned into an “agency of the BJP”, Banerjee cautioned that the saffron party might be in government today, but constitutional institutions will outlast it.
“The way the ECI is acting like an agency of the BJP, I am warning them, as a parliamentarian, that sooner or later the government will change. The BJP and (Union Home Minister) Amit Shah won’t stay, but the Constitution will,” he said at a press conference here.
Asserting that SIR stood for “Silent Invisible Rigging”, he argued that the exercise was designed not to include genuine voters but to “exclude them on political direction”.
“The BJP’s allied organisation has announced the SIR. Earlier, people used to elect the government. Now this BJP government wants to select who will vote or not,” Banerjee, considered number two in the TMC, claimed.
The Diamond Harbour MP questioned the timing of the revision process and the Centre’s narrative on infiltration.
“If 65 lakh people were removed from the voters list in Bihar, the ECI must clarify how many among them are Bangladeshis, how many Rohingyas, or any other country’s citizens. They are confusing Bihar with Bengal, they are not the same,” he said.
He alleged that BJP leaders themselves had admitted that voter names would be removed.
“They’re telling people: ‘If your name is removed, don’t worry; we will arrange for it to be included’. This proves they know deletion is planned,” the TMC leader said.
Banerjee claimed that the BJP’s claims of being protectors of Hindus stood exposed by the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.
“When the BJP announced NRC in Assam, out of 19 lakh people excluded, 12 lakh were Hindu Bengalis. Don’t fall into their trap,” he said.
He also accused the Centre of neglecting West Bengal in developmental allocations.
“Since 2014, they have done nothing for Bengal. They have taken our money and given it to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Even the railway project PM Modi inaugurated recently had its foundation laid by Mamata Banerjee in 2011,” he claimed.
On the BJP’s allegations that illegal migrants drive the state’s politics, Banerjee said the argument was flawed and exposed the Union Home Ministry’s “incompetence”.
“The BJP spreads the narrative that Bangladeshis and Rohingyas are in Bengal. But we don’t even share a border with Myanmar. And BSF is under the Home Ministry. If infiltration happens, it proves you (Amit Shah) are the most incompetent Home Minister in the history of independent India,” he said.
“You say Trinamool helps infiltrators. Wasn’t the Kashmir Police yours? Then how did terrorists enter Pahalgam?” Banerjee asked, criticising the government for extending Intelligence Bureau chief Tapan Deka’s tenure despite the incident.
Accusing the ECI of acting with bias in administrative transfers in Bengal, he pointed to alleged “conflict of interest” involving Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
“He is a man on a mission, and that mission is to destroy the country,” Banerjee alleged.
Banerjee also questioned how BJP leaders publicly mentioned that “one crore names” may be deleted from Bengal’s voter list in the SIR exercise.
“How do they know the number? Have they set this benchmark for the ECI? And if one crore names are fake, all 42 MPs from Bengal, including the 12 from BJP, should resign,” he said.
He warned that any attempt to delete eligible voters would trigger an unprecedented protest in the national capital.
“If a single eligible voter’s name is struck off the list, then one lakh people from Bengal will hold dharna in front of the EC office in New Delhi,” he asserted.
The TMC national general secretary blamed Amit Shah and CEC Kumar for the alleged suicide of a man in Panihati near Kolkata due to “fear of NRC and SIR”.
“Pradeep Kar died due to anxiety over NRC and SIR. FIR should be filed against Amit Shah and Gyanesh Kumar,” he demanded.
Calling the SIR timeline “unworkable”, Banerjee said the ECI should be ready to take responsibility for “volatility”.
“They are giving 10 crore people 20-22 days to register complaints. The onus lies on ECI if chaos happens. They issued the SIR notification without consulting the state,” he said.
Despite the confrontational tone, Banerjee expressed confidence in TMC’s electoral prospects.
“Even if they conduct this SIR, we will increase our seat tally in 2026. This is my challenge to the BJP,” he concluded. PTI PNT NN
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