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 said Monday that 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 Bengal 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 added.
Last week, Banerjee wrote a sharply worded letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, accusing the Election Commission of reducing the democratic process to a “farce.”
In her latest letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the chief minister expressed “grave concerns” over what she described as a “fundamentally flawed” SIR of electoral rolls.
The Bengal CM 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”.
She had written two letters to the CEC on November 20 and December 2 before this.
‘Election Commission is being run on WhatsApp’
Banerjee also alleged a “technological conspiracy” where “artificial Intelligence 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 5.4 million people have been removed,” she said.
“They had the right to fill out Form 7 and Form 8. Even if a murderer doesn’t get a lawyer, he can still defend himself. And here, they’ve 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 Trinamool Congress chief further said.
“The Election Commission is being run on WhatsApp. Who knows if they’ve 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.
Banerjee urged everyone to check their names on the SIR draft list. “It might be a bit troublesome, but this is a struggle to protect your rights. This is a struggle for survival. One must survive in this struggle. We are also taking the law’s help. The courts will open tomorrow, and we will also pursue legal action,” she added.