Mamata Banerjee Makes Allegations Over West Bengal SIR

On January 3, 2026, Mamata Banerjee wrote a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, raising serious concerns regarding the conduct of the SIR in West Bengal.

In her letter, the Chief Minister alleged that ECI officials were misusing IT systems and that voters’ names were being deleted without proper verification. She claimed that these deletions were being carried out without the knowledge or approval of the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), who are the competent statutory authorities under the Representation of the People Act.

She questioned who had sanctioned such actions and under what legal authority, emphasising that the Election Commission must be held fully accountable for any illegal, arbitrary, or biased activities carried out under its supervision.

The letter stated, “There are also grave allegations regarding the backend deletion of electors through the misuse of IT systems, without following due process and without the knowledge or approval of the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), who are the competent statutory authorities under the Representation of the People Act. This raises serious questions as to who has authorised such actions and under what legal authority. The ECI must be held fully accountable for any illegal, arbitrary, or biased actions carried out under its supervision or direction.”

Mamata Banerjee also highlighted concerns over the Family Register, which was widely accepted as a valid identity document during the SIR exercise in Bihar. According to her, the document is now reportedly being rejected in West Bengal through informal WhatsApp communications from the Chief Electoral Officer’s office, without any formal notification or statutory order.

She described this selective and unexplained exclusion as raising “serious concerns of discrimination and arbitrariness.”