Three days after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee began her dharna over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar arrived in Kolkata for a visit from Sunday to Tuesday to review poll preparedness ahead of the announcement of Assembly elections. Apart from West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry go to polls in about a month from now.
Despite protestors outside the New Town hotel on Sunday, in which the CEC and the Delhi team were staying—and black flags and ‘go back' slogans shown on Monday during his visit to the Kalighat temple—meetings were on with various political parties during the day for their views on the upcoming polls.
“There was no plan in the way protests were held, everyone had one type of banner and no flags in their hands. People of Bengal know which agency is holding protests without a flag. On one hand Chief Minister is sitting on a dharna and on the other hand, despite CEC getting Z-plus security, Kolkata Police is not trying to do anything, protestors are still at the spot,” said BJP leader Agnimitra Paul, who added that Banerjee does not respect anyone including the President, Prime Minister or Home Minister. Paul also said that Kolkata police see protestors on CCTV cameras but no one is caught.
“Gyanesh Kumar, it is good that you have come today to see what the law and order situation is in West Bengal and how—for 15 years—the common men from villages have voted. Today people are unable to go from home to the polling station. That is why people of Bengal want a President’s Rule,” Paul added, saying that even in the presence of central security forces, goons help to conduct voting and that without president’s rule, elections cannot be held in the state.
A war of words has been ensuing since Saturday after President Droupadi Murmu questioned the low turnout and the shifting of the venue of her public programme for the tribal community in Siliguri. Murmu also questioned why the Chief Minister and higher officials like Director General of Police (DGP) West Bengal was not present to receive her as per protocol and whether the CM was angry with Murmu.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi too hit out at Banerjee calling the act an insult, while the CM, from the dharna manch, referred to an old photograph of the PM sitting while BJP leader L.K. Advani was presented with the Bharat Ratna by the President.
“BJP West Bengal wants the 2026 Assembly elections to be peaceful and free of fear and violence. To conduct elections in an environment free of fear, we gave a 16-point memorandum of which the most important point is the apt use of the central security forces. Before the arrival of the full bench of EC, 40,000 central forces arrived in West Bengal, but we are unhappy the way state police is behaving, which is not bringing back confidence in voters,” noted BJP leader Jagannath Chattopadhyay.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) hit out at the BJP, saying that Kumar was not listening to the ruling party’s views because the SIR matter was taken to the Supreme Court (SC).
“The way every time he is the only one who speaks, he got agitated saying that you went to the SC and when everything is in the SC there is nothing to say. Everything was fine, you all went to the SC. Was it a crime to go to the Supreme Court? It is our right to go to the SC that is why we went. He asked me not to shout. Does he have no faith in women?” questioned Chandrima Bhattacharya, while also insisting that she had a right to stand up for the women in her state.
“As a woman you are saying don’t shout. Why should I not shout on behalf of the women in the state?” she added.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) team will also be meeting police officials and poll officials to get a 360-degree view of the current situation in the state. With more than 60 lakh voters under adjudication and 63 lakh voters deleted from the final SIR list released on February 28th, the ECI has been facing flak from the TMC—and other parties like Congress and CPI(M)—in the state, as the fate of several voters hang in the balance.
The TMC, among other parties, is also crying foul over several deletions from CM Banerjee's constituency Bhawanipore, amongst other ruling party voters whose names do not feature in the final list or are under adjudication.
For the TMC, a sizable vote bank is the minority community, many of who are not in the final list, while the BJP and ECI look at the voter revision exercise as a means to remove infiltrators from neighbouring Bangladesh from the list and ensure only eligible voters make it to the list. The drop in voter numbers from the final SIR list will affect votes for the political parties opposing the voter revision exercise.