Mamata moves SC over voter roll discrepancies in upcoming WB polls

Banerjee has raised concerns over an imminent and irreversible risk of large-scale disenfranchisement of eligible voters ahead of the upcoming state assembly elections, seeking a directive that the polls be held using the electoral rolls prepared last year.

She has also requested that electoral authorities be instructed not to summon voters for hearings in cases of name mismatches or spelling differences placed under the ‘logical discrepancy’ category during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.

According to her plea, such name-related corrections should be carried out suo motu on the basis of existing records, without requiring voter appearances. She has further sought directions that all identification documents issued by competent authorities be accepted as valid proof.

“The Petitioner reasonably apprehends that elections to the Legislative Assembly of West Bengal will be declared imminently, as the term of the Assembly ends on or about 07.05.2026. This would amount to the gravest injustice, as it would effectively freeze the voters’ list with widespread disenfranchisement, errors and omissions caused by the opaque, rushed, unconstitutional and illegal actions of the ECI, leaving no time for grievance redressal due to severe time constraints,” the plea states.

Filed through advocate Kunal Mimani, the petition argues that the ongoing SIR is likely to disenfranchise lakhs of voters and disturb the level playing field among political parties in the elections.

“The entire SIR exercise is designed to remove existing voters from the electoral roll by compelling them to prove their citizenship through ‘documentary’ evidence linked to an arbitrary cut-off date of 2002. This violates the Constitution as well as the Representation of the People Acts of 1950 and 1951,” the Trinamool Congress leader has contended.

She has further alleged that the exercise is being carried out with undue haste within a period of less than 90 days, just months before the 2026 assembly elections, and has flagged several practical difficulties and procedural loopholes in the process.

Allowing the exercise to continue, she has warned, would inevitably lead to mass exclusion of voters, particularly poor migrant workers who frequently travel outside the state for seasonal employment.

“ECI has turned the SIR exercise into a battlefield for voters, marked by arbitrary rejection of documents, irrational hearings, inconsistent instructions, opaque rules, shifting positions, and chaos caused by an untested algorithm and software deployed by the Commission,” the plea states.

She has also alleged that despite clear Supreme Court directions in petitions challenging the SIR, instructions continue to be issued to electoral officers through WhatsApp messages. Additionally, she has claimed that the list of individuals placed in the ‘logical discrepancy’ category has not been uploaded online.