Abhishek to head to Delhi as TMC intensifies SIR stir
Times of India | 28 July 2025
Kolkata: Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee is expected to reach Delhi this week as the party intensifies its stir in Parliament, demanding an assurance from the Centre "on the floor of the House" that the special intensive revision (SIR) in Bihar will be discussed.
Trinamool Congress has been consistently opposing SIR, questioning Election Commission's powers to conduct citizenship checks and disenfranchise voters. The party has said SIR requirements mirror Section 3 of the Citizenship Act, 1955, which makes the exercise "NRC in disguise.
"Over the last week, the party has been hamstrung by the absence of its floor leaders in Lok Sabha. Trinamool's leader in Lok Sabha Sudip Bandyopadhyay and senior MP Saugata Roy are not in Delhi due to health reasons. The party's chief whip in Lok Sabha, Kalyan Banerjee, is representing Bengal govt in cases and shuttling between Supreme Court and Calcutta High Court. On Friday, the party's deputy Lok Sabha leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar attended the all-party meeting convened by Speaker Om Birla. Banerjee is likely to remain in Delhi and work on party strategy.
The Diamond Harbour MP, who was part of Centre's outreach abroad after Pahalgam attack, is also likely to be a keynote speaker if Operation Sindoor discussions take place in Parliament.
A senior MP said: "Trinamool is not opposed to discussions on Operation Sindoor. In fact, we want some answers. But this cannot be at the expense of SIR. Here we are talking of mass disenfranchisement of people who had voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha, based on arbitrary reasoning. We want a clear assurance from the Centre on the floor of the house that SIR will be discussed threadbare in Parliament.