Mamata Banerjee writes again to EC, flags voter hardship in West Bengal roll revision: 'Forcing voters to re-establish identity'

Mamta Banerjee

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote a fresh letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Monday, accusing the Election Commission of ignoring statutory electoral corrections made over the past two decades and forcing voters to re-establish their identity during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

In the letter, Banerjee alleged that corrections carried out over the last 20 years were being disregarded, compelling electors to resubmit documents and causing widespread hardship. She also flagged serious procedural lapses, including the failure to issue proper acknowledgements for documents submitted as part of the SIR exercise.

The chief minister claimed the revision process was fundamentally flawed and said errors had occurred during the digitisation of the 2002 voters’ list using artificial intelligence. According to her, these errors had led to distress among voters and the exclusion of genuine electors.

This marks Banerjee’s latest escalation against the Election Commission over the SIR exercise, which has been underway in West Bengal for over two months.

Two days earlier, the chief minister had made sharp allegations, claiming the revision drive had already resulted in 77 deaths.

In her earlier letter to the CEC, she wrote, “It is shocking that an exercise which should have been constructive and productive has already seen 77 deaths with 4 attempts to suicide and 17 persons falling sick and necessitating hospitalisation.”