‘EC chief insulted and humiliated us’: Mamata Banerjee walks out of meeting with poll body

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee walked out of the Election Commission’s office on Monday, alleging that the delegation she led was “insulted and humiliated” by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar during the meeting.

Banerjee accused the poll body of operating as an extension of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s political machinery.

Banerjee, accompanied by MPs of the Trinamool Congress, met the commission to raise concerns about the special intensive revision of voter rolls. The members of the delegation had worn black shawls as a mark of protest.

Accusing the poll body of attempting to “choose the government before the election”, the chief minister said that she had “never seen an election commissioner so arrogant and such a liar” in her political career.

“You [EC] have the power of the BJP,” Banerjee said. “We have the power of the people. So we boycotted the meeting.”

Twelve voters had also accompanied the chief minister. Five of them had been declared dead and removed from the rolls, she claimed.

The draft electoral rolls for West Bengal under the special intensive revision exercise were published on December 16. The names of over 58 lakh voters were removed from voter lists in the state as they had either died, migrated outside the state or did not submit their enumeration forms.

On Monday, the chief minister alleged that the state was being “deliberately targeted” and claimed that the 58 lakh voters had been removed from the rolls without being given a chance to defend themselves.

She questioned why the revision exercise was not being conducted in BJP-ruled states and said it had been limited to Opposition-ruled West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

The voter roll revision exercise is underway in 12 states and Union Territories. Of these, assembly elections are due in 2026 in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

“If you had to do SIR [special intensive revision], you should have left the election-bound States out of it and undertaken it with proper planning,” The Hindu quoted Banerjee as saying. “You have a BJP government in Assam. You didn’t do SIR in Assam, but you did it in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.”

In Assam, the poll panel is conducting a special revision of the voter list in the state, which is similar to the usual updates to the electoral roll.

Banerjee also said that her party did not oppose the special intensive revision exercise in principle but added that it should not have been carried out in a “hurried manner”.

She also said that in a “document-poor” country like India, the Election Commission was seeking parental documents from those whose citizenship is beyond dispute, voters who exist in the 2002 electoral rolls.

“Can the prime minister, the home minister, or the chief election commissioner themselves produce their parents’ documents,” the CM’s party said. “Or is this humiliation reserved only for the poor, the vulnerable, and the voiceless?”

She also alleged that the chief election commissioner had not responded to five letters sent by her party.

An unidentified Election Commission official was quoted as saying by PTI that when Kumar started to respond, the TMC leaders interjected on multiple occasions.

“She was agitated and left the meeting in a huff,” the official said.

Banerjee flags ‘mass disenfranchisement’ risk

Banerjee has filed a public interest litigation before the Supreme Court challenging thevoter roll revision exercise in the state.

In her petition, Banerjee has raised concerns that the exercise poses an immediate and irreversible risk of mass disenfranchisement of eligible voters in the Assembly elections, Bar and Bench reported.

She has sought the court’s direction that the elections be conducted on the basis of the existing electoral rolls prepared last year.

Banerjee has also asked the court to direct election authorities not to summon voters for hearings in cases involving name mismatches or spelling variations categorised as “logical discrepancies” during the revision exercise.

She said such corrections should instead be carried out suo motu on the basis of available records.

Logical discrepancies include a mismatch in parents’ names, low age gap with parents and the number of children of the parents being above six. Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen was among those who got such a notice, with the Election Commission citing a gap of less than 15 years between him and his parents.

The draft electoral rolls for West Bengal under the special intensive revision exercise were published on December 16. The names of over 58 lakh voters were removed from voter lists in the state as they had either died, migrated outside the state or did not submit their enumeration forms.