&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "'EC used AI tools devised by BJP to wrongly delete voters’ names', claims West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee")
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday (January 13) accused the Election Commission (EC) of deleting nearly 54 lakh names from the draft electoral rolls during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) without giving affected voters a chance to explain or object. Speaking at a press conference at Nabanna, Banerjee alleged that electoral registration officers misused their authority, leading to the exclusion of a large number of what she termed “genuine voters,” news agency PTI reported. She claimed that many eligible electors were wrongly struck off during the verification process.
According to the chief minister, individuals whose names were deleted were not informed about the reasons behind the decision, effectively denying them the opportunity to contest the deletions. Banerjee also accused the EC of relying on artificial intelligence tools allegedly developed by the BJP, claiming that automated data matching during the SIR exercise resulted in widespread errors. She said women who changed their surnames after marriage were among those disproportionately affected due to mismatches in records.
She further alleged that the concept of “logical discrepancy” was introduced later into the revision process to justify additional deletions, asserting that this was not part of the original verification framework. Banerjee warned that the EC was planning to remove another one crore names before finalising the rolls. The TMC leader also claimed that Booth Level Agents (BLA-2s) were barred from attending hearings because the BJP lacked sufficient workers to participate in the process. BLA-2s are appointed by political parties to represent voters during verification proceedings.
On Monday (January 12), Banerjee wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar for the fifth time since concerns over the SIR exercise emerged. In her letter, she alleged that errors stemming from the AI-based digitisation of the 2002 electoral rolls were now causing serious difficulties for voters.
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She described the entire revision process as “fundamentally flawed,” alleging that no proper acknowledgements were issued for documents submitted by voters. Banerjee further claimed that the EC was ignoring established legal procedures followed for over two decades and forcing voters to revalidate their identities despite earlier corrections made through quasi-judicial hearings. The EC has not yet issued an official response to these allegations.
