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Between July and November 2025, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee hit the streets of Kolkata twice to protest towards the insurance policies of the Union authorities. Whereas it’s uncommon for Chief Ministers to descend on the streets and protest in different elements of the nation, it’s not an unusual sight in West Bengal, significantly when elections are not far away.
On November 4, the road protest by Banerjee, who can also be the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson, was towards the Particular Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.
With an analogous train being carried out within the neighbouring State of Bihar a number of months earlier, the TMC management had warned of huge protests, together with laying siege to the workplace of the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal, if the train was carried out by the Election Fee of India (ECI) within the State. On the finish of her march, Banerjee accused the Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) on the Centre and the ECI of utilizing the SIR as a political software to intimidate voters.
Throughout the annual Martyrs’ Day rally in Kolkata on July 21, 2025, Banerjee had, whereas highlighting the plight of migrant employees from the State to different elements of nation, touched upon SIR. “Over 40 lakh voters’ names had been eliminated in Bihar. Now, you [EC] plan to do the identical in Bengal. If they fight that right here, we are going to launch a gherao of their places of work. We’ll organise a large protest,” she had stated earlier than lakhs of supporters.
Nevertheless, after October 29 when the ECI introduced SIR in 12 States and Union Territories, together with West Bengal, overlaying over 51 crore voters, the TMC reconciled with the concept of holding the train. In reality, senior Ministers of the ruling occasion participated in an all-party assembly referred to as by the ECI’s West Bengal CEO.
A QR-coded voter checklist in Kolkata’s Sealdah space, the place individuals can examine if their names had been included within the 2002 electoral rolls.
| Picture Credit score:
The Hindu
Whereas the TMC has opposed the SIR, the BJP, which is the principal Opposition occasion within the State, has been demanding it. Months earlier than the revision of the voter lists began, BJP leaders have been making statements resembling “Folks of the State need SIR” and “No SIR, no votes”.
Tug of warfare
Ever because the 2021 Meeting polls when the TMC got here to energy for the third consecutive time period, the BJP’s vote share has been on a decline. After the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the TMC vote share stood at 46% and the BJP secured about 38% of the votes.
The BJP has been blaming the votes of “unlawful Bangladeshi immigrants” for the rising assist base of the TMC. Its stance has been that the SIR was essential to disenfranchise such voters.
Chief of the Opposition within the West Bengal Meeting Suvendu Adhikari has claimed that after the train, one crore voters can be deleted from the electoral rolls of West Bengal. Now, earlier than the SIR course of has ended, the variety of electors within the State is about 7.6 crore.
The BJP chief stated 4 sorts of voters can be deleted from the State: those that are lifeless however nonetheless on the rolls, double or triple entry voters, faux voters, and “Bangladeshi Muslims and Rohingya who’re unlawful voters”.
Throughout the first three weeks of the continuing SIR, Adhikari has cited a number of discrepancies within the voters’ lists. On November 12, the BJP chief arrived on the workplace of the CEO with a big quantity of papers claiming it contained names of 13.25 lakh bogus voters, and demanded immediate motion. He additionally charged a piece of Sales space Stage Officers (BLOs) engaged within the ongoing SIR course of with working in connivance with the ruling occasion to retain the names of these “faux voters”.
Whereas the TMC and the BJP saved buying and selling expenses over SIR, a 57-year-old in Panihati on the northern fringes of Kolkata triggered a recent controversy. Pradeep Kar died, allegedly by suicide, on October 29, a number of days earlier than the SIR course of began. His relations stated that he left a be aware blaming the NRC (Nationwide Register Of Residents) for his demise.
The very subsequent day TMC normal secretary Abhishek Banerjee visited the household and spoke to the media about how the demise was resulting from fears of SIR. The TMC has usually described SIR as an try and implement NRC from the again door within the State. “The entire of Bengal is now saying one factor: ‘Justice for Pradeep Kar’,” the TMC chief stated. This echoed the emotion from ‘Justice for R.G. Kar’, a slogan that rocked the State a yr in the past when a postgraduate trainee physician was raped and killed inside Kolkata’s R.G. Kar Hospital and Medical School.
In the meantime, Kar’s neighbours stated he didn’t have a number of fingers on his proper hand, so it was not attainable for him to jot down a be aware. After Kar’s demise, the TMC linked a number of suicides to fears associated to the SIR. Whereas the son of a migrant employee claimed that his father died at a hospital in Tamil Nadu, the native TMC MLA claimed the demise was resulting from suicide.
On November 20, the Chief Minister wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar urging him to halt the SIR in West Bengal, mentioning that the “human price of constant with the train has change into insufferable”. By then the TMC management started to assert that suicide deaths as a result of ongoing SIR, together with these of two BLOs, had climbed to twenty-eight.
The concern of some
Whereas individuals in West Bengal are confused and anxious, inside sure communities, concern prevails. The members of the Matua group, a sect of Hindu Namasudras (one of the downtrodden castes) who migrated from Bangladesh to India, and thus lack legacy knowledge and, in some instances, paperwork, have been feeling the warmth. At Thakurnagar in North 24 Parganas, the headquarters of the All India Matua Mahasangha, TMC MP Mamata Bala Thakur is on a starvation strike with 20 others.
“The federal government had assured that slowly Matuas who got here to this aspect (from Bangladesh to India) can be given citizenship. Most of us got here with nothing. It took us ages to get paperwork made. Now they’re questioning each doc?” says Bala.
The Citizenship (Modification) Act, 2019 (CAA) amends the Citizenship Act of 1955 and goals to supply aid to undocumented migrants belonging to 6 non-Muslim communities — Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian — who’ve fled spiritual persecution within the neighbouring nations of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and entered India on or earlier than December 31, 2014.
About 50 m from the place Bala and her supporters are on a starvation strike, a distinct state of affairs is unfolding. BJP MP and Union Minister Shantanu Thakur, who hails from the identical household as Bala, has organised a CAA camp. Right here, individuals from the Matua group can declare citizenship below the CAA. The camp expenses ₹800 for each particular person to get enrolled, a improvement highlighted by the TMC for instance of “money-making from the plight of residents”.
Saraswati Roy and her brother are each over 70 years previous. In a state of confusion, they wait outdoors the CAA camp, however are turned away as a result of they don’t have any paperwork from Bangladesh, one of many important standards to supply citizenship below the CAA. “We ran away from Bangladesh about 50 years in the past in a state of misery and violence. We got here with simply the garments on our our bodies. We didn’t have time to hold paperwork. Even when they’re providing citizenship, we’ve no approach to show how or after we got here from Bangladesh,” Roy says.
To register below CAA, an individual should declare their ancestry in Bangladesh. For the reason that SIR traces legacy knowledge the place names of fogeys within the 2002 voter checklist have to be recorded within the enumeration kinds, many individuals are unwilling to say they’ve Bangladeshi origins and search citizenship below the CAA. Amid the confusion, senior BJP chief and the occasion’s central observer for West Bengal, Sunil Bansal, has urged the State BJP leaders to not insist members of the Matua group to fill CAA kinds if they’re unwilling.
The issues of the marginalised
Residents of erstwhile Indian enclaves who grew to become Indian residents below the Land Boundary Settlement between India and Bangladesh in 2015 don’t have any paperwork previous 2015.
Joynal Abedin, a resident of Masaldanga in Cooch Behar which was a Bangladeshi enclave, says almost three weeks into the method BLOs have began accepting enumeration kinds by the nation’s latest group of residents who celebrated 10 years of citizenship in July this yr.
There are individuals displaced by Ganga river erosion like Khidir Field from Malda, who visited the CEO’s workplace in Kolkata mentioning that their polling sales space in 2002 went below the river. The SIR has additionally impacted marginalised teams like transgender individuals and intercourse employees who’ve left their houses and don’t need to return to hint their identify or the identify of their kin within the 2002 voter checklist.
Political events are establishing camps in a number of areas, together with the minority-dominated areas of Malda and Murshidabad, which ship numerous migrant employees to different States. The Communist Celebration of India (Marxist) has additionally arrange help cubicles in numerous areas to assist individuals navigate the SIR course of. Supporters of the CPI(M) and different Left events have held protests outdoors the workplace of the West Bengal CEO towards SIR.
“We’re in favour of a flawless voters’ checklist. For such a listing, there was no necessity of the SIR. The duty of this lies with the Election Fee and it has failed the individuals of India,” CPI(M) State secretary Md. Salim stated. The CPI(M) chief has additionally alleged irregularities on behalf of a piece of BLOs and written to the CEO on the problem. The CPI(M) management has additionally introduced a Statewide Bangla Bachao Yatra starting November 29, traversing about 1,100 km within the State, and ending on December 17.
Congress activists protesting towards the SIR train in Kolkata.
| Picture Credit score:
PTI
The Congress occasion, which had opposed the SIR in Bihar, has arrange a committee headed by economist Prasenjit Bose, who has expertise of working within the neighbouring State when the train was being held. The committee submitted its proposal earlier than the CEO suggesting not less than 16 modifications to the Bihar SIR mannequin, within the context of Bengal. Just like the CPI(M), the Congress management has accused the ruling dispensation of making an attempt to affect the SIR by involving people who find themselves near it.
Over a border
The BJP management is making an attempt to differentiate between “Indian Muslims” and “Bangladeshi infiltrators”. Over the previous few days, the Hakimpur border checkpost at Swarupnagar in North 24 Parganas is brimming with individuals ready to return to Bangladesh. West Bengal shares a 2,216-km border with Bangladesh out of which 450 km nonetheless stays unfenced. The BJP says that its demand so far as the SIR is evident: “detect, delete, and deport”.
“There was a pointy improve within the variety of individuals making an attempt to return to Bangladesh over the previous few days. Often a number of individuals cross the border every day, however now the numbers are in three digits (the lots of) every day. We aren’t apprehending individuals if there aren’t any legal antecedents towards them,” a senior Border Safety Power official stated.
A number of the individuals who have gathered on the border checkpost admit that they’re Bangladeshi nationals. Masum Billa, a resident of Khulna in Bangladesh, says that he has been dwelling within the New City space on the outskirts of Kolkata for the previous 4 to 5 years doing odd jobs.
Whereas Billa says that he has no legitimate id paperwork, Rokeya Bibi, who got here to India 10 years in the past from Satkhira in Bangladesh, claims that she has an Aadhaar card, a voter card, and a checking account. Rokeya says she was getting the advantages of the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme of the West Bengal authorities, which supplies monetary help to girls. The BJP management has used the picture on the border outpost to assist its claims in regards to the presence of numerous unlawful voters and justify the SIR.
Except for what residents are going via, the SIR has change into a floor for political sparring. When sturdy tremors had been felt throughout West Bengal on November 20 resulting from an earthquake that originated in Bangladesh, the BJP posted on social media: “West Bengal simply felt earthquake tremors. @MamataOfficial, was it due to SIR?”
In response, the TMC wrote: “It’s really the bottom shaking beneath the toes of @BJP4Bengal as they stare at an imminent defeat within the 2026 Meeting elections.”
If you’re in misery, please attain out to those 24×7 helplines: KIRAN 1800-599-0019 or Aasra 9820466726
(With inputs from Moyurie Som and Shrabana Chatterjee)
shivsahay.s@thehindu.co.in
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