NEW DELHI,6Jan2026: With state elections weeks away in Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her party, Trinamool Congress, has made the ongoing SIR exercise the key political issue to corner the BJP.
TMC has moved the Supreme Court against the Election Commission of India (ECI), stepping up its opposition to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.
The petition, filed by TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien, challenges the orders issued by the ECI. The 101-page plea argues that the poll body has acted outside the law and followed arbitrary procedures during the SIR exercise. The move comes a day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she would approach the Supreme Court to fight the Election Commission.
“ECI cannot act arbitrarily, capriciously or dehors law, nor can it substitute legally prescribed set procedures with ad-hoc or informal mechanisms,” the petition states.
The Trinamool Congress has claimed that since the start of the state-wide exercise, there have been more than 50 instances where the Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) office issued instructions to officials conducting the SIR through WhatsApp messages and oral directions.
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