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Suvendu Adhikari writes to CEC slamming Mamata Banerjee’s SIR concerns: ‘deliberate distortion designed to malign ECl’, ‘politically motivated’

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s call to halt the SIR process in the state is “a brazen attempt to perpetuate electoral malfeasance,” Suvendu Adhikari alleged in his letter.

He alleged the chief minister is trying to derail the SIR process for political reasons.

West Bengal Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari has rejected Mamata Banerjee’s criticism of the voter roll revision exercise in a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner. (PTI Photo)

Written by: Tanusree Bose

3 min readJan 6, 2026 05:07 AM IST First published on: Jan 5, 2026 at 12:50 PM IST

West Bengal Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Monday wrote to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar alleging that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s concerns about the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state are inaccurate.

Banerjee had written to the CEC on Saturday, urging him to rectify glitches in the SIR process or halt the exercise in the state. This was her third letter to Kumar since the SIR began.

Criticising her “barrage of unsubstantiated accusations” against the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the ongoing SIR, Adhikari stated, “Regrettably, this communication, coming hot on the heels of her earlier missives dated November 20, 2025, and December 2, 2025, reeks of political desperation and a frantic bid to derail a sacred Constitutional Exercise that threatens to expose the rot in our electoral rolls – a rot that her Trinamool Congress (TMC) regime has nurtured and exploited for electoral gains over the past decade,” Adhikari wrote.

“The SIR is not, as she falsely portrays, an ‘unplanned, ill-prepared, and ad hoc’ farce, but a meticulously orchestrated national initiative aimed at purging the system of duplicate, bogus, and ineligible entries that have inflated voter lists and undermined the sanctity of our democracy. It is clear as daylight that the Hon’ble Chief Minister’s outrage stems from the counterfactual reality,” he added.

IT systems ‘have processed millions of entries seamlessly’

In her four-page letter to the CEC, Banerjee claimed that critical instructions were being issued almost on a daily basis in connection with the SIR process, frequently through informal channels such as WhatsApp messages and text messages.

Far from being “defective and unreliable” as alleged, the IT systems “have processed millions of entries seamlessly, with real-time dashboards ensuring transparency…,” Adhikari stated, adding, “Instructions via digital channels like WhatsApp are modern, agile tools for urgent clarifications in a time-bound exercise, supplemented by formal circulars and gazette notifications where statutorily required. This hybrid model enhances responsiveness without sacrificing accountability, which is a far cry from the ‘informality’ decried.”

Besides, the timelines are transparent and publicly available on the ECI’s portal, and uniformly enforced, with extensions granted judiciously based on ground feedback, he said. “The daily updates she laments are evidence of the ECI’s proactive engagement, not confusion.”

Also Read | In latest letter, Mamata flags ‘flaws’ in SIR exercise, asks CEC to make amends or put a pause on it

Adhikari further stated that Banerjee’s litany of grievances is not only factually inaccurate but a deliberate distortion designed to malign the ECl as “politically motivated” and to manufacture a false narrative of widespread discomfort and disenfranchisement.

“The Hon’ble Chief Minister’s call to ‘halt’ the SIR is nothing short of an admission of defeat – a brazen attempt to perpetuate the electoral malfeasance that has defined her tenure,” Adhikari said in the letter.

Tanusree Bose

Tanusree Bose is a dedicated journalist reporting for The Indian Express from Kolkata.... Read More

# West Bengal