MAMATA DEMANDS REPOLL IN BENGAL, ARREST OF CEC GYANESH KUMAR AMID SIR ROW

September 23, 2026

KOLKATA: West Bengal former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has demanded fresh Assembly elections in the state using the electoral roll prepared before the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), following reports of internal objections within the Election Commission over aspects of the voter-list revision exercise. She also called for the arrest and removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and announced plans for protests against him.

Banerjee's remarks followed an Indian Express report that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections on at least 14 occasions over 10 months concerning electoral-roll procedures. One reported issue involved appeals filed against voters whose names had been retained by judicial officers during the Bengal SIR process.

The Election Commission has rejected the suggestion that the reported exchanges indicate a breakdown in decision-making. In a joint statement, the three commissioners said internal notes, queries and differing views were routine parts of institutional deliberation and maintained that all final decisions, including those concerning SIR, were unanimously approved by the full Commission.

The controversy comes after the EC told the Supreme Court that 27.16 lakh voters were removed during the Bengal SIR process, while more than 22 lakh of those deleted subsequently appealed for restoration. The poll panel has also maintained that deletions included categories such as absent, shifted, dead and duplicate voters and has proposed increasing the number of appellate tribunals to expedite pending cases.