An 85-year-old man who came to India from Bangladesh in the 1970s was found hanging at his daughter’s home in Birbhum’s Illambazar on Thursday, allegedly after panicking over the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls.

Khitish Majumder's suicide follows that of North 24-Parganas resident Pradeep Kar, 57, on Monday. This is the second suicide by a Hindu man in Bengal since the heavily saffron-backed Election Commission exercise was announced on Monday.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee tore into the BJP, asking if Union home minister Amit Shah would take responsibility. The BJP accused Mamata of peddling lies.

"We are witnessing the tragic consequences of the BJP’s politics of fear, division and hate....," wrote Mamata on X. "Who will answer for these avoidable, politically inflicted tragedies? Will the Home Minister accept responsibility?"

"I appeal to every citizen: Do not be provoked, do not lose faith, and do not take any extreme step. Our Maa-Mati-Manush Sarkar stands with you. We will not allow the NRC to be implemented in Bengal," she wrote. "We will not permit a single legitimate citizen to be branded an 'outsider'."

Majumder, who lived in Kotwali, West Midnapore, was staying mostly at his daughter Putul Biswas’s home in Schoolbagan, Illambazar, 17km from Santiniketan, after his wife's death 12 years ago. His kin claimed he came from Bangladesh in the early 1970s.

Granddaughter Hirubala Majumder claimed he "kept asking repeatedly" if he would be sent to a detention camp or repatriated to Bangladesh during the SIR. "He was very worried as his name was not in the 2002 rolls,” Hirubala said. "Now we are worried if our names will be included in the SIR, as my grandfather’s name was missing from the 2002 rolls."

Daughter Putul said local people told him that being listed in the 2002 roll was vital.

Why did someone who came from Bangladesh over 50 years ago not register his name on the 2002 rolls? “He had an old-fashioned mindset, he never bothered to keep documents.... Some years ago, some local politicians got him enlisted as a voter,” Putul said.

BJP IT cell chief and Bengal co-minder Amit Malviya accused Mamata of peddling lies. "It is flabbergasting how arrogantly she assumes that the people of Bengal are gullible enough to buy her lies. One must ask: Why would a 95-year-old man, born in 1930 and an Indian by birth, take his own life over SIR? Even if... he was not an Indian citizen post-Partition and later migrated to India, he was automatically eligible for Indian citizenship under the CAA, being a Hindu," he said. "The truth is, it is not SIR but Mamata Banerjee’s corrupt and crumbling administration that has blood on its hands."