West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday (December 9, 2025) claimed that Assembly elections in the State would be announced immediately after the publication of the final electoral rolls following the SIR exercise in February to prevent legal challenges. Addressing a public meeting in Cooch Behar district, Ms. Banerjee alleged that the SIR exercise was being used to instil fear among voters. “They will declare elections just after the final rolls of SIR are out in February, so that nobody gets the chance to challenge the rolls legally. It will be done so that elections are held based on that list,” she said. Ms. Banerjee alleged that the EC’s November 4 rollout of the SIR has created “widespread fear” among the people, making them apprehensive that their names would be arbitrarily dropped from the voters’ list. “Now we have to prove our citizenship? What greater shame can there be than this? People who have lived here for generations are being asked to prove who they are,” she said. Stepping up her attack on the Centre, the CM accused the BJP-led government of running an “anarchic and autocratic” regime. She alleged that the BJP would destroy the culture, language and heritage of Bengal if it came to power in the State. Ms. Banerjee also claimed that had her government blocked the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the BJP-led dispensation at the Centre would have imposed President’s Rule in West Bengal. “They were waiting for a chance. If we had stopped the SIR, President’s Rule would have been imposed here,” she alleged.
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