Will move court again to resist voter deletions,says Mamata as she files nomination for polls

PTI, April 8, 2026, Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday hit out at the BJP and the Election Commission over voter deletions during the SIR exercise and said her party will move a court again to resist the removal of electors from the rolls.

Mamata’s comments came after nearly 91 lakh voters' names were deleted from the electoral rolls following the completion of the Special Intensive Revision in the state. “You will not be able to defeat the TMC by deleting names. We will move a court again to resist the exclusion of names," she said while attacking her principal challenger BJP over the roll revision exercise.

The Chief Minister had in February argued in the Supreme Court as she sought an intervention in the SIR process. The EC figures, which pushed the total deletion to over 90.83 lakh names from the original voter base of 7.66 crore in October 2025, showed that the proportion of removal of electors now remains at over 11.85 per cent. Criticising the poll panel over the SIR process, Mamata also said: "We will fight legally to get the names included on the list as per the Constitution. If people cannot cast their votes, what is the need to frame the tribunal? And then you are saying that the list has been frozen. What is this? We will challenge it and try to understand it."

Addressing a poll rally, at Arambagh in Hooghly district, the TMC supremo accused the saffron party of trying to manipulate the electoral rolls and offering money to woo voters. Mamata also charged the Election Commission with intimidating people over the phone. “It (EC) is working at the behest of the BJP. It is calling people over the telephone to threaten and intimidate them,” she claimed.

Later, while speaking at a rally in Balagarh in the same district, the Chief Minister warned that voting for the BJP would effectively mean "giving up fish, meat, and speaking in Bengali". “People are allowed to eat eggs, fish, or meat in the BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra. The same will happen here if the BJP comes to power," she claimed.

Turning her nomination filing for the Bhabanipur seat into a political counteroffensive to the BJP's call for "paribartan", the Chief Minister on Wednesday marched from her Kalighat residence to submit her papers, projecting the constituency as a "mini India" under siege of polarisation.

Amid slogans of 'Mamata Banerjee zindabad', 'Joy Bangla' and 'TMC zindabad', the TMC supremo led a colourful procession to the Alipore Survey Building, where she filed her nomination papers for the constituency that revived her electoral career in 2021. With folded hands and her trademark smile, Mamata walked nearly 600 metres with women supporters blowing conch shells and raising ululations and party workers waving Trinamool Congress flags.

If BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari's nomination filing last week, accompanied by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, was designed as a show of saffron strength and a call for "paribartan", the TMC supremo's roadshow on Wednesday was carefully choreographed as its ideological opposite.

"I was born and brought up here in Bhabanipur only. I stay here 365 days a year. My life, my work, my movements -- everything revolves around Bhabanipur. Everything in my life began from here. I thank and salute the people of Bhabanipur," Mamata said after filing her nomination papers.

Seeking to widen the contest beyond Bhabanipur, she appealed to electors across Bengal to vote for the TMC. "I appeal to the people not only in Bhabanipur but in all the 294 seats to ensure the victory of our candidates. We will win with a bigger mandate," she said. The TMC had won 213 of the 294 seats in the 2021 Assembly polls.