Mamata Banerjee on Monday accused a “shameless” Election Commission of kowtowing to the BJP over the SIR, appeared to mock poll panel head Gyanesh Kumar as “Vanish Kumar”, questioned the draft rolls and vowed to decimate the saffron party in Bengal.
In a one-hour speech at a Netaji Indoor Stadium meeting with her party’s booth-level agents, Mamata alleged that BJP agents were getting names added or removed at will from the commission’s offices.
She expressed worry that the electoral rolls could be manipulated through artificial-intelligence-powered technology.
“Every day, I wake up to see drastic changes to (the commission’s directives, which are) being dictated by the BJP office. I’ve heard that the BJP has placed its agent in the commission office, and he is including online the names of whoever he wants,” she said.
“The entire list is being drawn up by the BJP’s people. Never before in my life have I seen such a shameless (poll) commission, nor do I wish to, ever again.”
The Trinamool Congress chief dubbed the poll panel a kritodash (slave) of the BJP and alleged it had added to the chaos by changing its directives 22 to 24 times already.
Monday’s meeting came ahead of the hearings and allied processes of the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls.
“I have also heard that AI is being used again. My name is Mamata Banerjee. When I go to vote, I might see that another Mamata Banerjee has been added by AI. That means I cannot vote. The (electoral roll entry) went to her name. Use your own intelligence,” Mamata said.
“We will do all that is necessary to defeat the BJP here. We will retain our government here, their government will collapse at the Centre.... We will reduce them to nothing in 2026.”
She reiterated that the SIR was being done in a tearing hurry in Bengal, resulting in numerous mistakes, both deliberate and inadvertent.
“This SIR is being carried out in an unplanned manner, only based on what the BJP has to say.... You (the BJP) will not be able to achieve what you seek even by such conspiracies,” Mamata said.
“Have the Vanish Kumar Babus, the BJP’s dalal (agents) given this any thought at all?”
Mamata said she feared that another 1.5 crore names would be removed from the rolls at the behest of the BJP’s “khokababus”.
Some 58 lakh names have been dropped during the enumeration exercise as those of absent, shifted, dead or duplicate voters. There’s room for further deletions from the current list of 7.08 crore voters if those called to hearings fail to prove their eligibility by furnishing the stipulated documents.
“Chalakir dwara mohot kaj hoy na (Great deeds are not accomplished through cunning),” Mamata said.
She said the hurry precluded a transparent SIR, since it was being conducted after a 23-year gap, and after a delimitation about 16 years ago that had changed practically every constituency in the state.
Mamata listed many challenges: issues with name spellings, in Bengali and English; changes of address; and particularly the changed surnames and addresses of married women.
She said the names of genuine voters were being deleted without considering such obvious issues.
“The BJP has created a BJP commission. File as many cases as you like, you can even slit my throat, but I will continue to speak for the people,” she said.
“Someone must speak out. If everyone cowers, the nation as we know it will cease to exist. Without Bengal as we know it, the nation will cease to exist.”
Mamata accused the poll panel of having “taken the lives of 46 people”, referring to voters and BLOs who have died from causes that have been linked to SIR-related panic or work pressure.
“It is not the fault of the BLOs, it is your (the commission’s) fault. You have to take responsibility.... Who gave you this right?” the chiefminister asked.
She told the party to collect information about all the central government employees from Bengal deployed on poll panel duty.
“Keep track of who has been appointed, in each area. In which department they work, where they live. I will cooperate with them, but I want all the details. They did not do this by asking the state,” she said.
She attacked the commission for its decision to shift the office of the Bengal chief electoral officer to a central utility’s premises.
“The office location is being changed without the permission of the state government. This is illegal,”she said.
Mamata reiterated allegations of corruption against chief electoral officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal, without citing specifics but referring to a past CBI probe against him.
The BJP mocked her.
Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said Mamata’s conduct at the meeting had revealed how “unsettled” she had become with the “proper conduct” ofthe SIR.
Suvendu targeted the chief minister for her persistent attacks on Union home minister Amit Shah, whom she has accused of pulling the strings from behind the scenes, saying they stemmed from her frustration at her inability to find pliant officers who would mislead the commission.
Most INDIA bloc parties, including the Congress, have levelled similar charges at Shah, though.
“Her government’s days are numbered. She will become a former chief minister after April,” Suvendu claimed.
Mic mishap
Mamata smelt a conspiracy when her microphone malfunctioned for a brief while.
“I have been seeing this for some time; the people working with the microphones here have been creating problems.... I will take action.… What do the police do? What does the party do? Nobody runs a sound check?” she said.
“Is this sabotage? Why are such problems taking place (at her events) repeatedly?”