West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday began a sit-in protest against the alleged deletion of voter names during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state.
The chief minister accused the BJP and the Election Commission of India (EC) of working together in what she described as a plan to remove Bengali voters from the electoral rolls.
Speaking at the beginning of the protest, Banerjee said she would bring forward people who had allegedly been marked as dead in the voter list.
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“I will present those voters, who have been declared dead by the Election Commission, at this protest site," she added.
The Telegraph reported that the protest began at the Metro channel in the middle of Esplanade, one of the busiest intersections in the city .
The demonstration was reportedly earlier announced by Abhishek Banerjee, national general secretary of the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC).
VIDEO | West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee arrives at Esplanade Metro Channel to begin sit-in protest against voter roll deletions ahead of assembly polls.
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) March 6, 2026
(Full video available on PTI Videos - https://t.co/n147TvrpG7) pic.twitter.com/EjWW8K5m9M
Abhishek Banerjee had alleged that the voter verification exercise carried out by the Election Commission was politically motivated and could remove a large number of genuine voters from the electoral rolls.
Official figures released on February 28 showed that nearly 63.66 lakh names have been removed since the SIR exercise began in November last year. This represents around 8.3 percent of the electorate in the state.
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The deletions have reportedly reduced the number of voters in the state from approximately 7.66 crore to slightly above 7.04 crore.
According to The Telegraph, apart from the names that have already been removed, more than 60.06 lakh voters have been placed in the category of “under adjudication”.
This means that the eligibility of these voters will be examined through legal review in the coming weeks. The outcome of this process may further affect electoral rolls and constituency-level electoral calculations.
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The Special Intensive Revision process was announced in October last year by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The revision was ordered for several poll-bound states including West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
The process was also conducted in Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Goa, along with Puducherry and the Union Territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.
Except for Uttar Pradesh, the final draft electoral rolls have already been released for all the other states and territories.
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