West Bengal Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya. File | Photo credit: The Hindu
The Trinamool Congress on Sunday (Nov 30, 2025) accused the Election Commission of India of “selective leaks” to BJP leaders and described the poll panel as an “extended body” of the saffron camp.
At least 40 people, including four BLOs, have lost their lives in the last one month due to stress related to the ongoing Special Intensive Review (SIR) in West Bengal, the TMC has claimed, claiming the ECI is responsible for the deaths and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has “blood on his hands”.
At a press conference here, senior TMC officials wondered how Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari had “predicted” the number of poll phases during the next assembly elections and announced that the names of one million people would be removed in the ongoing SIR exercise.
Senior Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya alleged that BJP leaders like Mr. Adhikari had said that state polls could be conducted in two to three phases instead of eight phases as in 2021, “If the EC is truly autonomous, how can BJP leaders confidently talk about the number of phases or the timing of SIR?”
From day one, Suvendu Adhikari and other BJP leaders have created a sense of fear among the common people by repeatedly claiming that one million names will be removed from the electoral roll in the state, TMC MP Partha Bhowmik said.
“How did they know the number? The EC, instead of answering our questions, is busy making selective leaks to the BJP’s propaganda machine. Instead of working as a neutral institution, the ECI is working as an extended body of the BJP,” Mr. Bhowmik said.
ECI officials, however, said it could not comment on the claims of political leaders.
Ms. Bhattacharya said the TMC was not against the SIR but against its “reckless and hasty implementation”.
Mr. Bhowmik alleged that Kumar “has blood on his hands” as he is a CEC and is therefore responsible for more than 40 SIR-related deaths in the last one month.
“Worse still, they have no remorse for the people who died. Not a single statement from Prime Minister Amit Shah or Gyanesh Kumar expressing remorse for the loss of lives. Their silence reveals their complicity,” the minister said.
As for extending the SIR timeline, she said if the ECI was so serious about the process, it should have started it several months ago with considerable time frame and planning.
“Why did they launch an unplanned exercise without properly training the BLOs, correcting application errors, ensuring internet access and cleaning irregular voter rolls?” she asked.
Published – 1 Dec 2025 04:52 IST
