West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday sent her fifth strongly-worded letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, accusing the Election Commission of undermining legally established voter registration procedures and causing “unnecessary harassment” to citizens during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.

In the three-page letter, Banerjee alleged that the Commission is disowning voter enrolments and corrections made over the past 23 years, despite electors having gone through due legal processes, quasi-judicial hearings, and submitting valid documents. She questioned whether the EC now considers decades of lawful action illegal.

The CM highlighted that officials have been instructed to cross-check entries against the 2002 voter list, terming the move “arbitrary, irrational, and unconstitutional.” She warned that rolling back the process to two decades ago has led to numerous errors and disputes, exacerbated by AI-based translations of old manual records.

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Banerjee also flagged administrative lapses, noting that many voters who submitted valid documents during hearings were not issued receipts, leaving them with no proof of submission. Minor spelling variations in names or slight differences in ages have triggered mass hearing notices, which she described as unnecessary and avoidable.

Further, Banerjee warned that the harassment at the citizen level is creating public anger against field officials conducting door-to-door checks. She urged the Election Commission to intervene immediately, halt the flawed process, and safeguard the democratic rights of ordinary voters.

Concluding her letter, the CM called upon the EC to act promptly to rectify these procedural and technological issues, emphasizing that protecting voters’ rights should remain the Commission’s foremost responsibility.

Also Read: Mamata Banerjee Accuses Election Commission of Voter Exclusion Through SIR Exercise