A 95-year old man died by suicide in Birbhum’s Ilambazar on Wednesday night purportedly scared with the roll out of the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls.

The death of Kshitij Majumdar is the second such death in the three days since the EC”s SIR drive started in Bengal. From 4 November the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) deployed by the EC will start a door-to-door matching and linking of voters from a list prepared in 2002 when the last such exercise took place.

“The old man was found hanging from the ceiling of one of the rooms of his daughter's residence here in Illambazar. The body has been sent for post-mortem examination. His family alleged that the person was under severe stress, fearing exclusion following the voter list verification process,” a police officer said.

Family members said Majumdar had been anxious since learning his name was missing from the 2002 electoral rolls.

“He would often say that since his name was not there in the 2002 voter list, would he have to go back to Bangladesh?” a relative said, adding that he had been mentally disturbed over the issue.

Police have registered a case of unnatural death and begun an investigation.

Mamata Banerjee who had objected to SIR when it was announced for Bihar in June this year blamed the BJP for the death in a series of posts made on X.

Mamata reiterated her charge against the BJP of driving citizens to despair through “the politics of fear, division and hate.”

“We are witnessing the tragic consequences of the BJP’s politics of fear, division and hate. Within 72 hours of the Election Commission’s announcement of the SIR exercise in Bengal—an exercise bulldozed through at the BJP’s behest—one avoidable tragedy after another has occurred,” she wrote.

Mamata cited the three incidents since the chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s announcement on Monday.

“On October 27, 57-year-old Pradeep Kar of Panihati, Khardaha died by suicide, leaving a note that read, ‘NRC is responsible for my death.’ On October 28, a 63-year-old man from Dinhata, Cooch Behar attempted to take his life, terrified of harassment under the SIR process. And today, 95-year-old Khitish Majumder from Kotwali, Paschim Medinipur living with his daughter in Ilambazar, Birbhum ended his life, gripped by the fear that he and his family might be dispossessed of their land.”

“Who will answer for these avoidable, politically inflicted tragedies? Will the Union home minister accept responsibility? Will the BJP and its allies, under whose watch this fear psychosis has spread, find the courage to speak out?” she asked.

“A 95-year-old man, who has given his life to this soil, forced to die to prove he belongs to it? What could be a deeper wound on the nation’s conscience? This is not just a tragedy —it is a betrayal of humanity itself.”

The chief minister urged citizens to remain calm, assuring them that her government would resist any attempt to implement the NRC in Bengal.

“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—neither through the front door, nor through the back door,” she said.

“Until the last drop of our blood, we will fight to protect the rights of the people and to defeat the BJP and their allies’ nefarious agenda to tear apart the social fabric of our nation.”

Unfazed by the criticism towards it, the BJP leaders are steadfast on the urgency of conducting SIR.

The Bengal BJP president and Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya had said on Wednesday evening, SIR will be implemented irrespective of the protests and threats.

Trinamool’s general secretary and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee, after meeting with the family members of Pradeep Kar, had suggested the BJP leaders who come asking for documents should be tied to a tree.

TMC alleges 'silent rigging' in voter list

The Trinamool also accused the Election Commission and the BJP of colluding to delete thousands of names from the voter rolls under the guise of the SIR exercise.

At a news conference on Thursday morning, Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “This is silent rigging. In one area, the 2002 list had 717 voters; now it shows just 140. They all couldn’t have died together! In several booths, hundreds of names have vanished without any official explanation.”

According to Ghosh, in Ashoknagar Assembly constituency’s Guma-1 Gram Panchayat, one booth shows zero registered voters despite nearly 900 names on the 2002 list. Similar discrepancies have been reported in Cooch Behar and other districts.

“This is a calculated move to delete genuine voters from the rolls. The conspiracy was hatched inside the BJP party offices and implemented through the Election Commission’s portal,” he alleged.

State minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said the irregularities had “boomeranged on the BJP” as some of their supporters, too, found their names missing.

The Trinamool has filed a complaint with the Election Commission demanding a full-scale probe, calling the alleged manipulation “a dangerous attempt to distort democracy.”

Defending SIR, the BJP leaders in Bengal said it will affect only those living in the state without valid documents.