‘Those voters declared dead will be presented’: Mamata Banerjee begins sit-in to protest EC-BJP ‘conspiracy’ against SIR in Bengal

New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday began a sit-in to protest against the state’s so-called Special Intensification Amendment (SIR) deletion of voters’ lists, accusing the BJP and the Election Commission of hatching a “conspiracy to disenfranchise Bengal voters”. She vowed to introduce all voters declared dead by the polling body.“I will expose the BJP-Election Commission conspiracy to disenfranchise the voters of Bengal,” she said at the start of the protest.“I will introduce at this protest site those voters who were declared dead by the electoral commission,” she added.Official data released on February 28 showed that since the launch of the SIR campaign last November, nearly 6.366 million people (about 8.3% of voters) have been removed, and the total number of voters has dropped from approximately 7.66 billion to just over 7.04 billion. Additionally, more than 6.006 million voters are classified as “adjudicated,” indicating their eligibility will be assessed through legal review in the coming weeks, a process that could further alter electoral dynamics at the precinct level.The sit-in protest that started in central Kolkata on Friday afternoon was earlier announced by TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who alleged that the poll panel was conducting a “politically motivated” campaign that could disenfranchise lakhs of genuine voters.The BJP’s Amit Malviya hit out at the Bengal chief minister, saying the state’s chief minister should focus on “achieving the objectives for which she was elected rather than sitting on darnas”.“According to sources in the state government, the number of unemployed people in the 18-40 age group in West Bengal is around 8.5 million. This has brought the unemployment rate under Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to a staggering 13%, well above the national average, which is still in the low single digits. This is entirely due to Mamata Banerjee and is also the result of the huge misgovernance that West Bengal has experienced in the past 15 years. If the chief minister had focused on achieving the goals for which she was elected instead of sitting on dharnas, things would not have been so bad. But it’s too late now,” he said in a post on X.