West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday defended the Election Commission amid the escalating political row over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal. He said the BJP and the poll panel could not be blamed for the deletion of 27 lakh names, and claimed the responsibility lay with Mamata Banerjee.
He also cited Saturday’s meeting of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, along with the poll panel’s statement issued afterwards, to reject allegations that decisions linked to the Bengal SIR were taken by the CEC alone. Adhikari said the meeting showed that the decisions were taken collectively.
At a press conference, Adhikari said, “The responsibility for the deletion of 27 lakh names lies with Mamata Banerjee, not the BJP or the Election Commission. Judicial officers took the decision following the Supreme Court’s directions in a case filed by her.” His remarks came a day after Banerjee sharpened her attack on the chief election commissioner, alleging that the SIR was being used to help the BJP capture Bengal and demanding his resignation.
Seeking to counter that attack, Adhikari said, “The meeting of the three commissioners and the statement issued thereafter have made it clear that the SIR-related decisions were not taken by one person.” He was referring to the meeting held at Nirvachan Sadan in New Delhi on September 26.
The Election Commission said on Saturday that all SIR orders had received the unanimous consent of all three commissioners and that the changes to Form 6 for voter enrolment had been upheld by the Supreme Court. The statement came after its first meeting since reports claimed differences between the CEC and the two election commissioners. The poll panel said the letters sent by Sandhu and Joshi to the Cabinet Secretary were related to an officer on deputation, and not to policy or IT division matters.
The EC’s remarks came after a report by The Indian Express highlighted instances of internal objections raised by the two election commissioners over certain decisions linked to the SIR. The poll panel has said differences during internal discussions are normal and that its final decisions were unanimous. Adhikari said the commission’s public stand of unity undercut the opposition’s claim that the SIR was driven by the CEC alone.
The political stakes remain high. According to figures submitted by the EC to the Supreme Court, more than 22 lakh of the 27.16 lakh electors deleted during the Bengal SIR have appealed for restoration. The poll panel has said the deletions followed verification of discrepancies and covered categories such as dead, shifted and duplicate entries.
Adhikari, however, framed the issue mainly as a political battle over the 2026 Assembly election. “If SIR is good in Kerala, why is it bad in West Bengal? We have won 208 seats, while the two sides (TMC and its allies) have 80. Mamata Banerjee is unable to accept the people’s verdict,” he said. In summary, he used the EC’s latest statement and the meeting of the three commissioners to defend the SIR process and push back against the opposition’s criticism.
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