Mamata Banerjee Warns BJP Against Voter List Revision in West Bengal

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of using the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision to implement the National Register of Citizens and disenfranchise voters, warning of public outrage if it proceeds. She spoke from the state secretariat in Nabanna on October 9, 2025, amid claims of targeting specific communities during a period of festivals and cyclones. BJP leaders condemned her statements as inflammatory, defending the revision as essential to remove duplicates and illegal entries from the voter rolls.

Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, has strongly warned the Election Commission and the BJP about a process called the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list. She warned them “not to play with fire” and reminded them of Bengal’s powerful political history, even claiming that “Even British feared Bengal.”

The Chief Minister claims that this voter list revision is secretly an attempt to introduce the National Register of Citizens (NRC) under a different name. “This is not SIR, this is backdoor NRC,” she declared. She also accused some Election Commission officials of overstepping their bounds and threatening government officers even before the election schedule has been announced. She believes the state government is being deliberately kept “in the dark” about the process.

Mamata Banerjee directly challenged the BJP, questioning their intentions after a Union Minister from the party, Shantanu Thakur, suggested that 1.5 crore people should be removed from the voter list. She asked if the plan was created in the BJP’s office with the Election Commission just acting as a rubber stamp. She also pointed out that conducting such a huge revision in just two months is impractical, especially since parts of the state are dealing with natural disasters, making it difficult for people to provide necessary documents.

The Trinamool Congress leader made it clear that her party would strongly oppose any attempt to remove citizens’ names from the voter list or take away the rights of any community. In a final, strong statement, she challenged her opponents: “Don’t underestimate the power of the people of Bengal.” She warned that if the BJP tries to fight them using central agencies, they are ready. She ended with a promise to “fight like the royal bengal tiger.”