Mamata Banerjee Leads Massive Anti-SIR Protest in Bengal — From Streets to Supreme Court: The Battle Over SIR 2.0 Intensifies

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has taken her opposition to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls to a new level — transforming what began as a street protest in Kolkata into a statewide movement and potential legal confrontation.
What the Election Commission of India (ECI) calls a “routine voter list revision” has become, in Banerjee’s words, a “silent and invisible rigging operation” ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections.

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From Streets to the State Secretariat: Mamata’s Anti-SIR Offensive

Mamata Banerjee led a massive protest march in Kolkata, denouncing the SIR exercise as a politically motivated attempt to manipulate the voter base in Bengal.
She accused the BJP-led central government of orchestrating the revision process to target opposition strongholds and remove legitimate voters — especially among marginalized and minority communities.

Banerjee warned that Bengal would not allow “democracy to be rewritten under the guise of data verification,” branding the SIR as “another backdoor operation to weaken state autonomy.”

Her fiery speech drew parallels with the 2016 demonetization, saying that just as that policy caused chaos and deaths without achieving its stated goals, SIR would destabilize democracy “in the name of cleansing.”

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Mamata Slams BJP’s ‘SIR 2.0’ Bengal Campaign

During the protest, Mamata accused the BJP of launching a “SIR 2.0 campaign” to influence Bengal’s electoral outcome.
She claimed that the process was being selectively implemented, starting with opposition-ruled states while ignoring BJP-controlled regions.

“They are trying to do in Bengal what they did in other states — delete genuine voters, add new ones aligned to their politics. This is not revision; this is manipulation,” Banerjee declared.

She alleged that SIR 2.0 is part of a larger national strategy, comparing it with efforts in Tamil Nadu and northeastern India, calling it a “nationwide attempt to rewrite democracy.”

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TMC’s Allegations: Fear, NRC Parallels, and Voter Disenfranchisement

Senior TMC leader Abishek Banerjee amplified the party’s charge that SIR is being used to intimidate vulnerable voters.
He linked the process to the NRC (National Register of Citizens) debate, claiming that fear of disenfranchisement has already led to “psychological distress and even deaths” in affected communities.

TMC cadres described SIR as an “administrative weapon” aimed at silencing the poor and minorities, promising to launch a legal challenge if required.

“If even one legitimate voter is deleted, we will march to Delhi and protest in front of the Election Commission,” Abishek warned.

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BJP’s Counter: Electoral Integrity, Not Intimidation

The BJP, however, has firmly defended the SIR process.
Party spokespersons argue that Bengal’s voter list grew by 36%, outpacing the 31% rise in population, suggesting large-scale duplication or inaccuracies that must be corrected.

They maintain that the Supreme Court has upheld the ECI’s powers to revise and clean up voter rolls, calling TMC’s protest “an attempt to protect illegal entries and create political drama.”

According to BJP leaders, the SIR ensures “clean, credible, and corruption-free elections”, and opposition protests are a sign of “fear of losing ground.”

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Election Commission Under Scrutiny

The Election Commission of India has become the center of the storm.
While the BJP praises its neutrality and legal mandate, the TMC and other opposition parties have accused it of bias and selective implementation.
Questions are being raised on why West Bengal was prioritized, while border states like Assam or Nagaland, with known voter identity issues, were not the first targets of the revision.

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Opposition States Unite Against SIR

Beyond Bengal, the SIR exercise is sparking resistance across other opposition-ruled states.
Both Tamil Nadu and Kerala have publicly voiced concerns, planning joint legal action or policy coordination to challenge the move.
Analysts suggest this could evolve into a federal pushback — a broader battle between state governments and the center over control of electoral processes.

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Legal Battle Looms: SIR in the Courts

As protests spread, legal experts anticipate that the SIR controversy may soon reach the Supreme Court.
Both sides are invoking constitutional arguments:

1. The BJP insists that the EC is within its rights to revise rolls to preserve electoral purity.

1. The TMC argues that citizenship and voting rights fall within state administrative competence and that unilateral enforcement violates federal balance.

This emerging legal showdown could set a precedent on how far the Election Commission can go in revising voter lists without state consent or oversight.

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Broader Political Implications

The SIR movement has grown beyond Bengal — it now embodies a larger national debate about electoral transparency, voter rights, and federalism.
While the BJP frames it as cleaning the system, Mamata Banerjee and her allies view it as an undemocratic overreach that risks disenfranchising millions.

As India moves closer to the 2026 Assembly elections, the SIR 2.0 controversy is shaping up to be a defining test — not just of electoral integrity, but of the balance of power between states and the center.

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