Abhishek calls SIR ‘backdoor NRC’; warns of ‘ECI siege’ if eligible voters dropped

Kolkata: Dubbing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls as “Silent Invisible Rigging” and a “backdoor NRC”, Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday accused the Centre and the Election Commission of India (ECI) of attempting to “exclude genuine voters” and tilting the political balance in favour of the BJP ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls.

Banerjee asserted that despite the SIR, the TMC would increase its seat tally in 2026, while the BJP’s seats would fall to 50.

He warned that if a single eligible voter’s name is struck off, one lakh people from Bengal would hold a dharna outside the EC office in New Delhi. Challenging Union Home minister Amit Shah, he said: “Let’s see if Delhi Police can stop us.”

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,” said the Diamond Harbour MP.

“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.

“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 warned.

“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.

Dismissing the claim that infiltration from Bangladesh and the entry of Rohingyas prompted the revision, Banerjee asked: “Five Northeast states share borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar. Then why is SIR being announced only in West Bengal, citing the presence of Bangladeshis and Rohingyas?”

He added: “The BJP’s allied organisation announced the SIR yesterday. This process is not about inclusion but exclusion. It is to manipulate the electorate. Earlier, people used to elect the government; now this BJP government wants to select who will vote.”

Banerjee questioned why the ECI had raised concerns about discrepancies in the voter list just 18 months after the Lok Sabha elections. “If there are discrepancies, then the Lok Sabha should be dissolved and fresh elections held,” he remarked.

He also questioned the feasibility of completing the revision within two months.

“In 2002, SIR in Bengal took two years. How can the ECI finish this mammoth task in one or two months?” he asked.

“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.

Holding Union Home minister Amit Shah and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar responsible for the death of a man in North 24-Parganas allegedly due to panic over citizenship issues, Banerjee accused the ECI of acting as an “allied organisation” of the BJP.

He also questioned why Assam, which goes to polls alongside West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry next year, was omitted from the SIR exercise. “They were clever to omit Assam because the BJP is in power there. If your motive is to deport Bangladeshis, why not conduct SIR in all border states?” he asked.