Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said there would be no detention camps in Bengal and assured the Matua community that no one would lose voting rights or citizenship as a consequence of the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll.
Mamata, who had launched a 20,000km mega rural roadways project worth ₹8,487 crore earlier in the day here, renewed her attack on the SIR on the last day of submission of the enumeration form.
She described the exercise as an indiscriminate “cleansing drive” of the voters’ list, alleging that the real objective was to pave the path for the BJP to come to power in the state.
The chief minister declared that she would stage a dharna before the Election Commission if the name of any genuine voter was struck off the final list.
Addressing a public meeting at the Krishnanagar Government College ground, she said: “If even a single eligible voter’s name is struck off, I will sit on a dharna.”
Her remarks came a day after Union home minister Amit Shah accused the Trinamool Congress of supporting infiltrators.
Mamata said she would not allow anyone to be deported.
“There will be no NRC and no detention camp in Bengal. Be assured about it, and nobody will be allowed to be deported. In case of deportation, we know how to bring them back,” she said.
Her assurance to the Matua community, which comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Ranaghat on December 20, is significant, as preliminary enumeration reports and earlier mapping suggest that a substantial section of Namasudra migrants, who arrived from Bangladesh after 2002, may face deletion from the voters’ list for lack of mapping. Many of these individuals were enrolled later, but could not be mapped to the 2002 list, prompting questions about their citizenship status.
The BJP has claimed that pending appeals for citizenship could enable provisional inclusion, but the Supreme Court has made it clear that voting rights cannot be granted to anyone who is not yet a citizen.
Escalating her attack on Shah, Mamata described him as a “dangerous” person and accused him of targeting Bengalis. “We have a home minister who can do anything to label all Bengalis as Bangladeshis and send them to detention camps. But we will not allow anyone to be driven out of Bengal. We know very well how to bring someone back if they are forced out.”
The chief minister further alleged that the Election Commission was deploying officials aligned with the BJP to influence the SIR process.
“Some BJP-backed people are being sent from Delhi to keep an eye on things in West Bengal. They are overseeing the work of district magistrates during SIR hearings,” she claimed.
Mamata accused the EC of acting on Shah’s instructions and conspiring to delete voters’ names. She alleged that district magistrates were being pressured to remove the names of 1.5 crore people from the electoral roll.
Citing the example of Bihar, she said: “You succeeded in Bihar. We will not let you do it in Bengal.”
She further alleged that the draft voters’ list was being prepared at the behest of the BJP’s IT cell.
“Are you planning to conduct the elections with a voter list prepared by the BJP’s IT cell? Do whatever you want. You won’t be able to do anything", Mamata said.
The chief minister claimed that excessive central interference in the Election Commission was dangerous for democracy. Attacking the Centre, she said: “You have forced them to become like the BJP. This is not good for the country. Remember, the people elect the government — not the Election Commission.”
Her message was clear: the Trinamool Congress government would not tolerate any “political ploy” involving the electoral roll ahead of the elections, and the electorate would ultimately decide who forms the government.
She also issued a call to women across the state to be prepared to resist if their names were deleted.
“Mothers and sisters, if your names are struck off, you have the tools, right? The tools you use during cooking. You have strength. You will not let it pass if your names are cut. The women will fight in the front, and the men will be behind them,” she said, adding that she wanted to see “who is more powerful: women or the BJP.”
While Mamata called for resistance, several kilometres away at Falta in South 24-Parganas, EC special observer C. Murugan was confronted by a large group of Trinamool supporters — all women.
The women allegedly showed umbrellas and brooms, while others shouted slogans in support of Mamata and local MP Abhishek Banerjee.
Murugan is learnt to have sent a report to the EC stating that the women raised grievances about not receiving funds for roads, houses, and other schemes — issues unrelated to the SIR. He reportedly wrote that despite objections, he would continue his work.
Around 11am on Thursday, Murugan visited the Falta BDO office and verified the list of elderly voters. He then travelled with BDO Shanu Baxi to the Payrachali area of Debipur Gram Panchayat, inspecting households of elderly voters in booths 85, 86, and 87 to verify whether the listed individuals were alive. The exercise triggered anger among villagers, many of whom viewed the checks as intrusive and politically motivated.