Kolkata

Mamata Banerjee on Saturday alleged that the deletion of voters from electoral rolls after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) was part of a plan to divide West Bengal.

Addressing supporters during her sit-in protest at Metro Channel in central Kolkata, the chief minister accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of attempting to deprive Bengali-speaking people of their voting rights.

Banerjee continued her protest for the second consecutive day on Saturday after spending the night at the demonstration site.

“Their intent is to divide Bengal. The BJP is planning to take away votes by dividing the state and turning parts of it into a union territory,” she alleged, also accusing the Election Commission of India of being complicit.

She claimed that Bengali-speaking people were being harassed in other states and that efforts were underway to deprive Bengalis of their voting rights.

Referring to social media posts suggesting that Bengal and Bihar might be reorganised to create a union territory, Banerjee said, “Let them touch Bengal if they have the guts. This is their conspiracy.”

She also referred to the creation of Jharkhand from Bihar in 2000, alleging that a similar move was being contemplated again.

Criticising the electoral roll revision, Banerjee claimed that thousands of names had been deleted from individual constituencies.

“In a single constituency like Dinhata, 36,000 votes have been deleted. In my own constituency, Bhabanipur, 60,000 votes have been removed,” she said, while inviting women from her constituency to display their documents on stage to prove their eligibility.

“Are they not citizens of the country? Don’t they have the right to vote?” she asked, accusing the poll panel of “looting votes”.

The chief minister also said that on the occasion of International Women's Day on March 8, thousands of women would take to the streets in Kolkata on Sunday to protest against the alleged deletion of women’s names from the voter list and rising LPG prices.

Banerjee said the protesters would wear black clothes as a mark of protest.

“Beware BJP. You cannot divide Bengal by deleting votes. If you cross the limits, your Delhi government will be toppled,” she warned.

The All India Trinamool Congress supremo also accused the BJP of failing to fulfil promises related to women’s empowerment, claiming that her government had already implemented measures such as higher representation of women in local bodies and extended parental leave for working women.

Her protest began on Friday, when she accused the Election Commission of conspiring with the BJP to “disenfranchise Bengal voters” ahead of the upcoming assembly elections.

The demonstration comes just days before a full bench of the Election Commission is scheduled to visit West Bengal amid rising political tensions over the voter list revision.

According to official data released on February 28, about 63.66 lakh names — roughly 8.3 per cent of the electorate — have been deleted since the SIR process began in November last year, reducing the voter base from around 7.66 crore to just over 7.04 crore.

READ MORE: Mumtaz Thaha, Thrissur’s first Muslim woman Councillor

Additionally, more than 60.06 lakh electors have been placed under the “under adjudication” category, meaning their eligibility will be examined through legal scrutiny in the coming weeks, a process that could significantly influence constituency-level electoral dynamics.