Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee launched a scathing attack on the Election Commission and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during a major rally in Baruipur on Friday. The event marked the official flag-off of TMC's campaign for the crucial 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections, with the contentious Summary Revision (SIR) of voter rolls positioned as the party's central poll plank.
The 'Ghosts' Walk on Stage
In a dramatic moment, Banerjee ushered three individuals onto the stage, declaring, "I will make three ghosts walk." He introduced them as Monirul Islam Molla and Harikrishna Giri from Metiabruz in Kolkata, and Maya Das from Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas. According to the TMC leader, all three had been erroneously marked as deceased during the Election Commission's SIR process.
"In this (South 24 Parganas) district alone, 24 people who are alive have been shown dead by the EC," Banerjee asserted, claiming these were not isolated incidents but part of a widespread issue affecting the state's voter list.
A Confrontation in Delhi and a Warning
Banerjee detailed a recent confrontation with the Election Commission in Delhi. He stated that during a visit to the EC office, he directly asked Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to publish a list of Bangladeshi nationals whose names were allegedly deleted from the rolls. "He couldn't do it. Instead, he raised his finger at me," Banerjee recounted.
The TMC Lok Sabha MP did not mince words in his response: "I told him, you are nominated, we are elected. Who are you showing aggression to?" He issued a stern warning, suggesting that the Commission's perceived aggression would be met with greater force. "They thought Trinamool would go on the backfoot if they showed slight aggression. But, we have shown what it is to be a Bengali," he said, adding that after him, party supremo Mamata Banerjee would also confront the EC.
BJP and the 'Notices' to Common People
Turning his fire towards the BJP, Abhishek Banerjee criticized the ruling party at the Centre for the scale of the SIR exercise. He alleged that 1.3 crore (13 million) people in Bengal had been sent notices to attend SIR hearings under the guise of addressing "logical discrepancies" in the voter list.
"BJP can send legal notices to me and Trinamool workers. But why are notices being sent to common people?" he questioned. He drew a parallel with the 2016 demonetisation drive, stating, "In 2016, they made people stand in line for demonetisation. Ten years later, they are making them stand in line for SIR." This comparison aimed to paint the BJP-led central government as repeatedly subjecting ordinary citizens to hardship.
The Baruipur rally has unequivocally set the tone for the TMC's political strategy leading up to 2026. By centering the campaign on the SIR issue and presenting alleged victims of administrative errors, the party is seeking to frame the battle as one of Bengali identity and rights versus an overreaching central authority represented by the EC and the BJP. The stage is now set for a fiercely contested election where voter list integrity is likely to remain a hot-button topic.
