Concerns over SIR not heard, told SC will decide it: TMC after meeting with Election Commission

West Bengal’s ruling TMC on Monday (March 9, 2026) claimed that its concerns over SIR implementation went unheard in the pre-poll consultation meeting with the full bench of the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Minister of State Chandrima Bhattacharya said the party’s three-member delegation was told that since the TMC had gone to the Supreme Court on the issue, the decision would be taken by them and the ECI had nothing to do with it.

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, along with Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi and West Bengal Chief Executive Officer Manoj Agarwal, held a meeting with representatives of various political parties at a hotel in New Town near Kolkata.

“I’m a woman and I’ve been told ‘don’t shout’. Why shouldn’t I raise my voice when speaking about people’s rights?” Ms. Bhattacharya said the ECI claimed that when they tried to raise concerns regarding the SIR implementation, they had repeatedly stated that the matter had been decided in the Supreme Court.

“Whenever we talked about SIR, they said the matter was in the Supreme Court. If so, why did they call us for a meeting? When they invite us, they should have listened to what we have to say,” he added.

Ms. Bhattacharya said it was TMC’s responsibility to protect people.

“Was it wrong to go to the Supreme Court? We did the right thing. Why shouldn’t we go?” he asked.

Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, who was part of the delegation, alleged that a “wrong perception” was created about the presence of infiltrators in West Bengal, leading to harassment of genuine Indian citizens.

“Not a single spy or Rohingya has been detected in the last two months, but ordinary Indian citizens are being harassed and forced to prove their citizenship,” he said.

He claimed that thousands of people were kept in long queues during the exercise and that many of them fell ill and died during the exercise.

Maintaining that the right to vote is a constitutional right, he claimed that removing names of genuine citizens from the electoral rolls would be “unconstitutional”.

When asked how many phases of the election the party wanted from the ECI, the two leaders said it did not matter.

What is important, they said, is that genuine voters are not excluded by the ECI under the influence of the BJP.

Former DGP and TMC Rajya Sabha candidate Rajeev Kumar was also part of the delegation.