Mamata Banerjee Holds Dharna Over Voter Roll Deletions Ahead of Bengal Polls

PTI, March 6, 2026, Kolkata: In a dramatic return to the street politics that once defined her rise, Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal, on Friday launched a dharna in central Kolkata against large-scale deletions in the state's voter rolls following the SIR exercise, escalating the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC)'s confrontation with the Election Commission of India weeks before the Assembly polls.

Beginning the sit-in at the politically symbolic Metro Channel in Esplanade, Banerjee accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the EC of conspiring to "disenfranchise Bengali voters", signalling that the voter roll controversy would form a central political plank of the TMC's campaign ahead of the high-stakes elections expected in April.

"I will expose the BJP-EC conspiracy to disenfranchise Bengali voters," the TMC supremo said at the start of the protest.

The dharna, which began around 2.15 pm, marks a sharp escalation by the ruling party after the publication of post-SIR electoral rolls that have significantly altered the contours of the state's electorate. According to official data released on February 28, as many as 63.66 lakh names, about 8.3 per cent of the electorate, have been deleted since the SIR process began in November last year, reducing the voter base from about 7.66 crore to just over 7.04 crore.

In addition, over 60.06 lakh electors have been placed under the "under adjudication" category, meaning their eligibility will be decided through legal scrutiny in the coming weeks, a development that could further reshape constituency-level electoral equations. The TMC has alleged that the exercise is politically motivated and could affect over 1.2 crore voters, a charge rejected by the EC.

From the dharna stage, Banerjee claimed several voters had been wrongly declared dead in the revised rolls and said they would be presented at the protest site to highlight the alleged irregularities.

"So many people have been declared dead, but they are alive. I will bring them to the stage," she said. "Look at them, they are sitting here but have been declared dead in the voter list. There is no shame left. The BJP and its agents in the EC have crossed all limits," Banerjee added, saying she would speak in detail on the issue on Saturday even as the dharna continues.

However, she did not specify how long the protest would continue, even as it comes just two days before the proposed visit of the full bench of the Election Commission to the state.