110 dead due to SIR in Bengal, says Mamata, blames EC and Centre
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday (January 23, 2026) said that three to four people are dying by suicide every day in the State due to anxiety over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the State. She said the Election Commission of India and Central government should take responsibility for the deaths.
The Trinamool Congress chairperson asked why an FIR should not be registered against the poll body for the deaths. “More than 110 people have died. Why will the case not be filed against EC? The Election Commission of India will have to take responsibility for these deaths, the Government of India will also have to take responsibility,” Ms. Banerjee said at an event to mark the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
There have been instances where people have registered police complaints against the poll body in the State.
Ms. Banerjee has been critical of the SIR since the start of the process and has written five letters to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar since November 2025.
During the event organised on Red Road, Ms. Banerjee said, “If Netaji was alive, he would have been called for the hearing.”
The Chief Minister said attempts are being made to disrespect national icons from Rabindranath Tagore to Bose and change the country’s history. “There is an attempt to change the history of India. Scholars are being disrespected. There is disrespect for the language and our culture,” she said.
Hitting out at Ms. Banerjee, West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya said that “those who are in politics banking on the legacy of Congress, they should not comment on treatment of national icons.”
Mr. Bhattacharya said the BJP was indeed “changing the history” of the country by getting rid of the “colonial hangover”.
Politics in election-bound West Bengal has been on the boil over SIR. After the completion of the first phase, about 58 lakh names were deleted from electoral rolls, bringing the number of voters in the State to 7.08 crore from 7.66 crore.
There have been violent protests over notices to electors under the category of “logical discrepancies”. About 1.36 crore such notices have been issued.
On Thursday, the poll body had directed officials to lodge an FIR against Trinamool Congress MLA Monirul Islam for vandalising the Block Development Office in Farakka earlier this month.
