Mamata Banerjee. Image for illustration purposes only. | Photo credit: File
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s appearance before the Supreme Court, where she sought to challenge the ongoing Special Intensive Review (SIR), came as a major shot in the arm for the Trinamool Congress. The ruling party hailed the development as a “BIG WIN for Hon’ble Chief Minister Smt. @MamataOfficial” and said the Supreme Court had directed officials to act sensitively.
Photos and videos of the chief minister appearing before a division bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant were widely circulated by the party on social media. “At the Supreme Court, Mamata Banerjee wore a lawyer’s coat, argued facts and enforced accountability,” the party posted on social media.
“History is written by those who refuse to remain silent. When democracy is under attack, Didi will stand up for Bengal with courage and conviction. Today’s fight is not about power, it is about people,” Trinamool Congress said in another statement on social media.
From ministers in the West Bengal government to party MPs and spokespersons, several Trinamool Congress leaders have praised the party president’s efforts in arguing against the SIR before the Supreme Court. The chief minister is opposed to SIR as the exercise was held ahead of the Bihar assembly elections last year. As soon as the trial began in West Bengal in November 2025, Ms. Banerjee took to the streets to protest against it. Between November 2025 and January 2026, she wrote six letters to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Her visit to Delhi is billed as the culmination of the anti-SIR protest. Apart from the parade of those the party says have suffered because of SIR, it held a meeting with the CEC over the alleged ill-treatment and appeared before the Supreme Court on Wednesday (February 4, 2026).
SIR as a survey board
While the SIR aims to clean electoral rolls in West Bengal, the exercise has become an electoral issue in the state ahead of the upcoming assembly elections. For the Trinamool Congress, which is facing an anti-incumbency after three terms, the ongoing SIR has turned out to be a blueprint for the polls. The party alleges that the Bharatiya Janata Party in connivance with the Election Commission of India is harassing the people of the state and trying to wipe out genuine voters.
In the first phase of SIR, about 58 million names were removed from the state electoral roll, while about 1.36 million voters, or about 20% of the electorate, were included in the logical irregularities. The total number of voters in the state is about 7.08 million.
The BJP leadership in West Bengal, which demanded the SIR, admitted to harassing people for the exercise, but alleged that the Trinamool Congress was responsible for the harassment in collaboration with several officials involved in the process.
Amid political wrangling, relations between the West Bengal government and the Election Commission of India have reached another impasse over the appointment of state government officials as central poll observers for other states. The ECI on Wednesday informed the West Bengal government that no change will be allowed in the list of 15 IAS and 10 IPS officers from the West Bengal cadre who were initially selected by the Commission for Appointment as Central Survey Observers in other states.
Published – 04 Feb 2026 21:41 IST
