Pushing the panic button in West Bengal

Between July and November 2025, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee deed the streets of Kolkata doubly to protestation against the policies of the Union government. While it is antithetic for Chief Ministers to descend connected the streets and protestation successful different parts of the country, it is not an uncommon show successful West Bengal, peculiarly erstwhile elections are circular the corner.

On November 4, the thoroughfare protestation by Banerjee, who is besides the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson, was against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls successful West Bengal.

With a akin workout being carried retired successful the neighbouring State of Bihar a fewer months earlier, the TMC enactment had warned of monolithic protests, including laying siege to the bureau of the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal, if the workout was carried retired by the Election Commission of India (ECI) successful the State. At the extremity of her march, Banerjee accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) astatine the Centre and the ECI of utilizing the SIR arsenic a governmental instrumentality to intimidate voters.

During the yearly Martyrs’ Day rally successful Kolkata connected July 21, 2025, Banerjee had, portion highlighting the plight of migrant workers from the State to different parts of country, touched upon SIR. “Over 40 lakh voters’ names were removed successful Bihar. Now, you [EC] program to bash the aforesaid successful Bengal. If they effort that here, we volition motorboat a gherao of their offices. We volition organise a monolithic protest,” she had said earlier lakhs of supporters.

However, aft October 29 erstwhile the ECI announced SIR successful 12 States and Union Territories, including West Bengal, covering implicit 51 crore voters, the TMC reconciled with the thought of holding the exercise. In fact, elder Ministers of the ruling enactment participated successful an all-party gathering called by the ECI’s West Bengal CEO.

While the TMC has opposed the SIR, the BJP, which is the main Opposition enactment successful the State, has been demanding it. Months earlier the revision of the elector lists started, BJP leaders person been making statements specified arsenic “People of the State privation SIR” and “No SIR, nary votes”.

Tug of war

Ever since the 2021 Assembly polls erstwhile the TMC came to powerfulness for the 3rd consecutive term, the BJP’s ballot stock has been connected a decline. After the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the TMC ballot stock stood astatine 46% and the BJP secured astir 38% of the votes.

The BJP has been blaming the votes of “illegal Bangladeshi immigrants” for the increasing enactment basal of the TMC. Its stance has been that the SIR was indispensable to disenfranchise specified voters.

Leader of the Opposition successful the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari has claimed that aft the exercise, 1 crore voters volition beryllium deleted from the electoral rolls of West Bengal. Now, earlier the SIR process has ended, the fig of electors successful the State is astir 7.6 crore.

The BJP person said 4 kinds of voters volition beryllium deleted from the State: those who are dormant but inactive connected the rolls, treble oregon triple introduction voters, fake voters, and “Bangladeshi Muslims and Rohingya who are amerciable voters”.

During the archetypal 3 weeks of the ongoing SIR, Adhikari has cited respective discrepancies successful the voters’ lists. On November 12, the BJP person arrived astatine the bureau of the CEO with a ample measurement of papers claiming it contained names of 13.25 lakh bogus voters, and demanded punctual action. He besides charged a conception of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) engaged successful the ongoing SIR process with moving successful connivance with the ruling enactment to clasp the names of those “fake voters”.

While the TMC and the BJP kept trading charges implicit SIR, a 57-year-old successful Panihati connected the bluish fringes of Kolkata triggered a caller controversy. Pradeep Kar died, allegedly by suicide, connected October 29, a fewer days earlier the SIR process started. His household members said that helium near a enactment blaming the NRC (National Register Of Citizens) for his death.

The precise adjacent time TMC wide caput Abhishek Banerjee visited the household and spoke to the media astir however the decease was owed to fears of SIR. The TMC has often described SIR arsenic an effort to instrumentality NRC from the backmost doorway successful the State. “The full of Bengal is present saying 1 thing: ‘Justice for Pradeep Kar’,” the TMC person said. This echoed the emotion from ‘Justice for R.G. Kar’, a slogan that rocked the State a twelvemonth agone erstwhile a postgraduate trainee doc was raped and killed wrong Kolkata’s R.G. Kar Hospital and Medical College.

Meanwhile, Kar’s neighbours said helium didn’t person respective fingers connected his close hand, truthful it was not imaginable for him to constitute a note. After Kar’s death, the TMC linked respective suicides to fears related to the SIR. While the lad of a migrant idiosyncratic claimed that his begetter died astatine a infirmary successful Tamil Nadu, the section TMC MLA claimed the decease was owed to suicide.

On November 20, the Chief Minister wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar urging him to halt the SIR successful West Bengal, pointing retired that the “human outgo of continuing with the workout has go unbearable”. By past the TMC enactment began to assertion that termination deaths owed to the ongoing SIR, including those of 2 BLOs, had climbed to 28.

The fearfulness of some

While radical successful West Bengal are confused and anxious, wrong definite communities, fearfulness prevails. The members of the Matua community, a sect of Hindu Namasudras (one of the astir downtrodden castes) who migrated from Bangladesh to India, and frankincense deficiency bequest information and, successful immoderate cases, documents, person been feeling the heat. At Thakurnagar successful North 24 Parganas, the office of the All India Matua Mahasangha, TMC MP Mamata Bala Thakur is connected a hunger onslaught with 20 others.

“The authorities had assured that dilatory Matuas who came to this broadside (from Bangladesh to India) volition beryllium fixed citizenship. Most of america came with nothing. It took america ages to get documents made. Now they are questioning each document?” says Bala.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) amends the Citizenship Act of 1955 and aims to connection alleviation to undocumented migrants belonging to six non-Muslim communities — Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi oregon Christian — who person fled spiritual persecution successful the neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and entered India connected oregon earlier December 31, 2014.

About 50 m from wherever Bala and her supporters are connected a hunger strike, a antithetic script is unfolding. BJP MP and Union Minister Shantanu Thakur, who hails from the aforesaid household arsenic Bala, has organised a CAA camp. Here, radical from the Matua assemblage tin assertion citizenship nether the CAA. The campy charges ₹800 for each idiosyncratic to get enrolled, a improvement highlighted by the TMC arsenic an lawsuit of “money-making from the plight of citizens”.

Saraswati Roy and her member are some implicit 70 years old. In a authorities of confusion, they hold extracurricular the CAA camp, but are turned distant due to the fact that they bash not person immoderate documents from Bangladesh, 1 of the main criteria to connection citizenship nether the CAA. “We ran distant from Bangladesh astir 50 years agone successful a authorities of distress and violence. We came with conscionable the apparel connected our bodies. We did not person clip to transportation documents. Even if they are offering citizenship, we person nary mode to beryllium however oregon erstwhile we came from Bangladesh,” Roy says.

To registry nether CAA, a idiosyncratic indispensable state their ancestry successful Bangladesh. Since the SIR traces bequest information wherever names of parents successful the 2002 elector database request to beryllium recorded successful the enumeration forms, galore radical are unwilling to accidental they person Bangladeshi origins and question citizenship nether the CAA. Amid the confusion, elder BJP person and the party’s cardinal perceiver for West Bengal, Sunil Bansal, has urged the State BJP leaders not to importune members of the Matua assemblage to capable CAA forms if they are unwilling.

The problems of the marginalised

Residents of erstwhile Indian enclaves who became Indian citizens nether the Land Boundary Agreement betwixt India and Bangladesh successful 2015 person nary documents preceding 2015.

Joynal Abedin, a nonmigratory of Masaldanga successful Cooch Behar which was a Bangladeshi enclave, says astir 3 weeks into the process BLOs person started accepting enumeration forms by the country’s newest radical of citizens who celebrated 10 years of citizenship successful July this year.

There are radical displaced by Ganga stream erosion similar Khidir Box from Malda, who visited the CEO’s bureau successful Kolkata pointing retired that their polling booth successful 2002 went nether the river. The SIR has besides impacted marginalised groups similar transgender radical and enactment workers who person near their homes and bash not privation to instrumentality to hint their sanction oregon the sanction of their kin successful the 2002 elector list.

Political parties are mounting up camps successful respective areas, including the minority-dominated areas of Malda and Murshidabad, which nonstop a ample fig of migrant workers to different States. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has besides acceptable up assistance booths successful antithetic areas to assistance radical navigate the SIR process. Supporters of the CPI(M) and different Left parties person held protests extracurricular the bureau of the West Bengal CEO against SIR.

“We are successful favour of a flawless voters’ list. For specified a list, determination was nary necessity of the SIR. The work of this lies with the Election Commission and it has failed the radical of India,” CPI(M) State caput Md. Salim said. The CPI(M) person has besides alleged irregularities connected behalf of a conception of BLOs and written to the CEO connected the issue. The CPI(M) enactment has besides announced a Statewide Bangla Bachao Yatra opening November 29, traversing astir 1,100 km successful the State, and ending connected December 17.

The Congress party, which had opposed the SIR successful Bihar, has acceptable up a committee headed by economist Prasenjit Bose, who has acquisition of moving successful the neighbouring State erstwhile the workout was being held. The committee submitted its connection earlier the CEO suggesting astatine slightest 16 changes to the Bihar SIR model, successful the discourse of Bengal. Like the CPI(M), the Congress enactment has accused the ruling dispensation of trying to power the SIR by involving radical who are adjacent to it.

Over a border

The BJP enactment is trying to separate betwixt “Indian Muslims” and “Bangladeshi infiltrators”. Over the past fewer days, the Hakimpur borderline checkpost astatine Swarupnagar successful North 24 Parganas is brimming with radical waiting to instrumentality to Bangladesh. West Bengal shares a 2,216-km borderline with Bangladesh retired of which 450 km inactive remains unfenced. The BJP says that its request arsenic acold arsenic the SIR is clear: “detect, delete, and deport”.

“There has been a crisp summation successful the fig of radical trying to instrumentality to Bangladesh implicit the past fewer days. Usually a fewer radical transverse the borderline daily, but present the numbers are successful 3 digits (the hundreds) connected a regular basis. We are not apprehending radical if determination are nary transgression antecedents against them,” a elder Border Security Force authoritative said.

Some of the radical who person gathered astatine the borderline checkpost admit that they are Bangladeshi nationals. Masum Billa, a nonmigratory of Khulna successful Bangladesh, says that helium has been surviving successful the New Town country connected the outskirts of Kolkata for the past 4 to 5 years doing unusual jobs.

While Billa says that helium has nary valid individuality documents, Rokeya Bibi, who came to India 10 years agone from Satkhira successful Bangladesh, claims that she has an Aadhaar card, a elector card, and a slope account. Rokeya says she was getting the benefits of the Lakshmir Bhandar strategy of the West Bengal government, which provides fiscal assistance to women. The BJP enactment has utilized the representation astatine the borderline outpost to enactment its claims astir the beingness of a ample fig of amerciable voters and warrant the SIR.

Aside from what citizens are going through, the SIR has go a crushed for governmental sparring. When beardown tremors were felt crossed West Bengal connected November 20 owed to an earthquake that originated successful Bangladesh, the BJP posted connected societal media: “West Bengal conscionable felt earthquake tremors. @MamataOfficial, was it due to the fact that of SIR?”

In response, the TMC wrote: “It’s really the crushed shaking beneath the feet of @BJP4Bengal arsenic they look astatine an imminent decision successful the 2026 Assembly elections.”

If you are successful distress, delight scope retired to these 24x7 helplines: KIRAN 1800-599-0019 oregon Aasra 9820466726

(With inputs from Moyurie Som and Shrabana Chatterjee)

shivsahay.s@thehindu.co.in