Mamata to move Supreme Court today against SIR, says will plead as an ordinary citizen and not as a lawyer or CM

Escalating her confrontation with the Election Commission and the Centre over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said she would move the Supreme Court “as an ordinary citizen” to protect the democratic rights of citizens.

Addressing a massive public gathering at Gangasagar in South 24 Parganas district, the chief minister said she would seek special permission to appear before the Supreme Court. “If necessary, I will go to the Supreme Court and plead for the people. I will speak for the people,” she said.

“I will not go as a lawyer, although I am a lawyer. As an ordinary citizen, I can certainly speak my mind. I will take permission to speak my mind and try to show clearly what is happening at the grassroots level, what is happening on the ground, and how people are being harassed. No matter how much the BJP tries, they won’t succeed,” she said.

Urging everyone to check their names on the SIR draft list, the TMC supremo said, “It might be a bit troublesome, but this is a struggle to protect your rights. This is a fight for existence. One must survive in this struggle. We are seeking legal help. So many people have died due to SIR. We are moving court tomorrow against the inhumane treatment and the death of so many people due to the SIR,” she said, adding that she was prepared to escalate the legal battle if necessary. The TMC chief’s decision to move the Supreme Court against the SIR exercise comes a day after she expressed “grave concerns” over what she described as a “fundamentally flawed” SIR of electoral rolls.

In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Sunday, the chief minister said if the “unplanned, arbitrary, and ad hoc” exercise is not immediately rectified, it must be halted to prevent a “direct assault on the foundational principles of democratic governance”.

Last week, Banerjee wrote a sharply worded letter to the CEC, accusing the Election Commission of reducing the democratic process to a “farce.”

The chief minister alleged a “technological conspiracy” where Artificial Intelligence (AI) and informal messaging platforms are being weaponised to “disenfranchise millions of voters” ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections in the state.

“Listen, Artificial Intelligence has emerged now. Often, you’ll see it’s not me. But using my image and voice, they can spread many lies. There are fake videos. Discern with your own intelligence what to accept and what not to. There is no task in the world that the BJP cannot do. Remember, the names of 54 lakh people have been removed,” she said.

“Even if a murderer doesn’t get a lawyer, he can still defend himself. And here, they have used AI to remove names. AI is deciding whose surname has changed, who got married, and which girl has gone to her in-laws’ house. Names have been removed using AI,” the TMC chief further said.

“The Election Commission is being run on WhatsApp. Who knows if they have bought WhatsApp or not… I’m sorry to say that people’s names are being removed from the voter list… If people’s rights are removed, you will vanish too. Keep this much in mind,” Banerjee said. She said that elderly citizens, pregnant women, and voters on oxygen support were being called for hearings.

“After living in this country for so long, do they still need to prove that they are voters and citizens?” Banerjee asked, claiming that nearly 70 people had died since the exercise began and several others had attempted suicide.

“If people’s rights are taken away, you too will vanish,” she warned Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

On December 16, the Election Commission published the draft electoral roll after the first phase of the SIR, with the electorate dropping from 7.66 crore to 7.08 crore following the deletion of over 58 lakh names.

The second phase, which began on December 27, involves hearings of 1.67 crore electors under scrutiny, including 1.36 crore flagged for logical discrepancies and 31 lakh whose records lack mapping.

The election to the 294-member Assembly is due in three months, and TMC is seeking a straight fourth term.