West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addresses the media outside the Election Commission office in New Delhi on 2 February 2026 after meeting Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar along with families allegedly affected by the SIR process. Trinamool MPs Kalyan Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee look on. | Photo credit: ANI
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday (February 3, 2026) said her party would be open to an impeachment motion against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar if a united opposition moves one.
But the prime minister noted that the opposition does not have the necessary numbers to push the proposal through parliament. “But it will be good to have it on the record,” she said. Ms. Banerjee along with the party’s National General Secretary and Lok Sabha Speaker Abhishek Banerjee addressed a press conference in Delhi.
The two leaders were surrounded by many “SIR affected” families from West Bengal. These families who accompanied Ms. Banerjee to Delhi include those who either had their names struck off the electoral roll after the Election Commission declared them dead, and relatives of booth-level officers (BLOs) who died during the Special Intensive Review (SIR) exercise. A Trinamool delegation led by Ms Banerjee met the Election Commission on Monday (February 2, 2026).
“Have evidence of tampering with SIR”
The CEC can be removed from office through the impeachment process, which requires a two-thirds majority of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to be present and vote for the same.
Ms. Banerjee said the BJP had defended the SIR by claiming that it would remove “ghuspetiya” or infiltrators from electoral rolls, but had not yet been able to produce any evidence to support the claim. She further stated that the exercise appeared to target minorities. In West Bengal, 33% of the population are minorities. She asked, “Are you going to delete them all?” She also pointed out that CEC Kumar was the only one who spoke during Monday’s meeting and accused him of “insulting” the Trinamool Congress and the voters who had come to meet him.
The party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee disputed the EC’s claim that the Trinamool delegation misbehaved with the panel. “The three-year CM wrote six letters to the CEC and didn’t even bother to reply. Who is being rude here? Forget the reply, they didn’t even admit they got the letter,” he said. Mr. Banerjee further said that he had enough evidence to prove that the EC had tried to manipulate the SIR and would present it to the court.
Published – 03 Feb 2026 20:30 IST
