Mamata Banerjee Alleges Election Commission Undermines Voter Rights
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has escalated her confrontation with the Election Commission of India. On Monday, she wrote a second letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar within just forty-eight hours. In her communication, she made serious allegations against the commission's conduct during the Summary Revision of electoral rolls.
Core Allegation: Systematic Failure to Acknowledge Documents
Mamata Banerjee's central charge is clear. She claims the Election Commission is not providing proper acknowledgments for documents that voters submit during SIR hearings. Instead, officials are reportedly marking these submissions as "not found." The Chief Minister argues this practice directly aims to disenfranchise legitimate voters.
"The non-issuance of documentary acknowledgment deprives electors of proof of submission," Banerjee stated in her letter. She emphasized that this leaves citizens at the mercy of potential internal record-keeping errors. "This defeats the very objective of SIR, which is intended to strengthen and purify the electoral roll," she added.
Historical Context and a Broken Process
Banerjee provided crucial background to support her argument. She reminded the CEC that after the 2002 Summary Revision, many voters applied for corrections to their names and addresses. The Election Commission itself ratified these changes. Subsequently, the corrected details were included in the official electoral rolls for the 2025 elections.
Now, the Chief Minister alleges, the EC is disregarding its own long-established statutory processes. "EC is now compelling electors to once again establish their identity and eligibility," she wrote. This demand, she contends, ignores two decades of consistent procedure.
Questioning the Legality of Past Revisions
Mamata Banerjee posed pointed questions to the Election Commission. She noted that for over twenty-three years, countless electors submitted Form 8 along with valid government-issued documents. After quasi-judicial hearings, their particulars were officially corrected.
"Why should the process revert to 2002?" she asked. "Does this imply all those revisions were illegal?" The West Bengal CM labeled the Commission's current approach as arbitrary and unjust. Her letters signal a deepening dispute over electoral integrity and administrative fairness as the state prepares for future polls.
