West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday escalated her confrontation with the Election Commission to unprecedented levels, declaring that she will personally sit on an indefinite dharna the moment even one legitimate voter’s name is deleted during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, framing the exercise as a sinister BJP-orchestrated purge ahead of the 2026 assembly polls.

Speaking at a packed public rally in Krishnanagar, Nadia district, Banerjee alleged that the Election Commission has deliberately dispatched “BJP-inclined officials” from Delhi to supervise district magistrates and booth-level officers, ensuring that Bengali-speaking citizens, particularly from marginalised communities, are systematically targeted and marked as “doubtful voters” under the guise of verification.

In a blistering personal attack on Union Home Minister Amit Shah, whom she described as “dangerous – you can see it in his eyes,” Banerjee accused the Centre of harbouring a genocidal plan to brand millions of Bengalis as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and herd them into detention camps, vowing that no such facility will ever be permitted on West Bengal soil as long as she remains in power.

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Defiance turned symbolic when Banerjee revealed that she herself has refused to submit the enumeration form circulated under SIR, rhetorically challenging the gathering: “Do I, the three-time elected Chief Minister of this state, now need to prove my citizenship to a party of rioters?” – a statement that drew thunderous applause and underscored her strategy of turning the revision process into a larger battle over Bengali identity and federal overreach.

With the Election Commission already extending the final publication of West Bengal’s revised electoral rolls to 14 February 2026 – citing the massive scale of enumeration and polling-station rationalisation – Mamata Banerjee’s open threat of street agitation has transformed a routine administrative exercise into a high-stakes political showdown, guaranteeing that the coming year will witness intense mobilisation on both sides as Bengal hurtles toward what is shaping up to be one of its most polarised elections in decades.

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