In a striking escalation of political contestation ahead of the 2026 assembly polls, Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal, and Abhishek Banerjee, National General Secretary of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), took to the streets of Kolkata on Tuesday to lead a large-scale protest against the ongoing roll-revision exercise known as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral lists in the state. According to TMC estimates, the rally drew more than 50,000 supporters marching through key thoroughfares in the heart of the city. The turnout, its timing, and the content of the speeches suggest that the party is signalling the start of its full-scale mobilisation for the 2026 polls.
The TMC called the rally to oppose what it describes as a politically motivated purge of voter rolls under the SIR process. The ruling party in West Bengal argues the drive is less about updating voter records and more about “silent invisible rigging”. The event was held as thousands of Booth-Level Officers (BLOs) began house-to-house enumeration across the state under SIR on Tuesday itself. Mamata Banerjee who walked the rally holding the book - Constitution of India in her hand, started the march after paying respect to statue of Dr B R Ambedkar. The rally ended at Jorasanko, the birth place of Bengali legend and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. The starting and ending point of the rally were strategically selected to send out the message as how SIR was both “anti-constitutional” and “anti-bengali”. In her speech, she issued a clear threat: “We will dislodge the BJP-led regime at the Centre if even one genuine voter is axed from the list.” Abhishek Banerjee, addressing the crowd, called the SIR exercise “a conspiracy to snatch away citizens’ democratic rights” and declared that making Bengal “BJP-free” would be the battle ahead. “By the time Bihar figured it out, their (voters’) names had already been removed. We caught them before they were able to do anything here... If even one legitimate person is removed, we will bring down the BJP government, we will make sure that happens,” Mamata thundered near the Jorasanko gate.
The protest was cast as a defence of democratic rights of the ordinary voter. Mamata stated: “All genuine voters should be able to exercise their rights… we have to keep the pillars of democracy strong.” The SIR process was branded by the TMC as a façade for disenfranchisement of millions—framed by Abhishek as a “politically motivated purge” under the guise of revision. The sheer size of the rally, the selection of central Kolkata for the march, and the striking visual of Mamata holding the Constitution point to the party positioning itself as a defender of the marginalised against what it claims is a centralising tilt by the Centre and its agencies. The rally also displayed another picture, ahead of Mamata Banerjee, there was human chain formed by people belonging to different faiths and they too marched the anti SIR rally - in a way to indicate that SIR didn’t mean a threat to Muslims alone but to people of all faiths. BJP had been maintaining that SIR would see deletion of over crore voters, termed by them illegal Bangladeshi muslim migrants.
“They are saying they will remove Rohingya. Rohigyas are from Myanmar and Bengal doesn’t share border with Myanmar, Manipur - Mizoram - Nagaland and Arunachal does. Then why no SIR in north east. Can the ECI and BJP dare to do SIR in North East. Tripura shares border with Bangladesh, like Bengal but again there’s no SIR. Among the four states going to polling in 2026, SIR happening in all non bjp states but not in Assam. Because if they do SIR in Assam, they will lose”, Mamata Banerjee claimed, calling it a clear discrimination aimed at helping none other than the ruling party at the Centre.
Referring to chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar as “kursi babu”, the Trinamool chief said: “In 2002, Bengal’s last SIR took two years. Why this abnormal rush to finish it all in a month this time? Only to please (Narendra) Modi babu and Amit Shah?”
While officially the protest is about SIR and electoral rights, analysts note that Tuesday’s mobilisation likely serves a dual purpose: fuelling the party’s grassroots energy early and signalling to voters that the TMC intends to fight the 2026 Assembly polls on its terms.
By linking the voter-roll issue to “democracy under threat”, the TMC leadership appears to be setting the narrative that the battle is not merely electoral, but existential for Bengal’s local democracy. Further, the involvement of the state Chief Minister and the national party general secretary together adds weight and presents a united front of top leadership ahead of the campaign season. Mamata Banerjee gave the political slogan - “BJP Hatao, Adhikar Bachao (Vote out BJP, save your rights).
