NEW DELHI: West Bengal leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday hit out at chief minister Mamata Banerjee, strongly rejecting her allegations about the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.In a letter addressed to the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, Adhikari highlighted that Mamata Banerjee’s letter to the EC “appears to be a desperate and politically motivated attempt to derail the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, which is a crucial step toward ensuring free, fair, and transparent elections in our state.”“This process, undertaken by the Election Commission of India (ECI) with utmost diligence, has evidently exposed vulnerabilities in the electoral rolls that threaten the prospects of her Trinamool Congress (TMC) party, prompting such unfounded outbursts,” Adhikari added.Adhikari dismissed Mamata’s claims that the Special Intensive Revision is “unplanned, insensitive, and inhuman” as exaggerated and politically motivated.He said allegations of harassment, intimidation, and excessive workload on citizens are unsubstantiated. He also criticized her attribution of 77 deaths, four suicide attempts, and 17 hospitalizations to the exercise, calling the figures fabricated or opportunistically linked to unrelated incidents.“There is no verifiable evidence connecting these tragic events to the electoral revision; instead, it reflects a pattern of scapegoating central institutions to mask local governance lapses. The SIR is a verification process, not a punitive one, and any genuine hardships can be addressed through the appeals mechanism already in place. To sensationalize such matters for political gain undermines the gravity of real human tragedies and disrespects the affected families,” Adhikari said. Adhikari defended the Election Commission’s handling of the Special Intensive Revision, saying its actions reflect impartiality, not overreach, and ensure that no one is above scrutiny. He called it selective and misleading to label certain cases as a “profound shame,” noting the broader goal is to maintain electoral integrity for all.He also claimed that concerns over women changing surnames after marriage and the treatment of migrant workers are overstated. Adhikari further rejected claims of selective targeting or “logical discrepancies” in certain constituencies, emphasizing that the process is data-driven and uniform statewide.“This letter from the Chief Minister is a frantic bid to sabotage the SIR, as it has inflicted irreparable damage to the TMC’s prospects by exposing the rot in the voter rolls; rot that has allegedly been nurtured through years of unchecked additions of bogus voters, including infiltrators from across borders. Halting or diluting this exercise would betray the democratic ideals enshrined in our Constitution and disenfranchise genuine voters who deserve clean elections,” Adhikari said.Mamata Banerjee had earlier criticized the ongoing SIR in the state, alleging that a process intended to be constructive has already resulted in 77 deaths and left several others hospitalised.Mamata alleged that the ECI carried out the procedure without proper planning, creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. “This is attributed to fear, intimidation and disproportionate workload due to unplanned exercise undertaken by ECI,” the chief minister wrote in her letter addressed to the Chief Election Commissioner.
