Kolkata, 06 March (H.S.): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday staged a sit-in protest at Metro Channel in Dharmatala, targeting the Election Commission over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and alleging irregularities in the voter list.

Addressing the gathering from the protest stage, Banerjee alleged that several living individuals had been wrongly marked as dead in the electoral rolls. She said that 22 such persons would be brought to the stage to demonstrate that they were alive. According to her, those declared “dead” in the voter list were present at the protest venue to prove that they were very much alive, describing the situation as “shameful.”

The chief minister also accused the Election Commission of functioning under the influence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She alleged that serious discrepancies had surfaced in the voter list, calling it a matter of concern for democracy. Banerjee claimed that several families had faced difficulties due to the SIR process, and some of those affected were present at the protest site.

Leaders, workers and supporters of the Trinamool Congress from different districts gathered at the venue in support of the protest. Several voters who alleged that they had been declared dead or ineligible in the electoral rolls also came to the stage.

During the protest, a representative from the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission in Minakhan claimed that he had been serving as the organisation’s president for the past 14 years, but despite that his name had been removed from the voter list.

The Trinamool Congress described the protest as a fight to protect the rights of voters. Banerjee said a meeting would also be held in the evening to discuss the party’s future course of action on the issue.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Priyanka Pandey