The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is the need of the hour in West Bengal; otherwise the state will become West Bangladesh,” West Bengal BJP chief and Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya tells Rajesh Kumar Thakur in an interview. Genuine natives of the state of all castes and religions have “nothing to fear” from the SIR, he assures. Excerpts:
After Bihar, it’s perhaps West Bengal’s turn to undergo the SIR, ahead of the 2026 Assembly election. Why is it needed there?
It is needed to filter illegally enrolled voters—who migrated from other places, mostly from Bangladesh through the porous Indo-Bangladesh border—and address electoral malpractices the ruling Trinamool Congress has carried out for long. The SIR will take place in West Bengal as it has become the need of the hour; otherwise, the state will become West Bangladesh. The state is clamouring for the SIR, as it has always followed democratic values and practices. Genuine people here, irrespective of their caste and creed, want it. I assure the people of even Indian minorities that their original rights of voting will remain as secure as they need to be.
How prepared is the BJP ahead of the election when the Opposition, including TMC, has called the SIR process anti-democratic?
Bengal is in a total mess due to TMC misgovernance. It only engages in politics of appeasement—not politics of progress, peace, and prosperity. The BJP has emerged as the viable and last option for people who are fed up with the tyranny of TMC, corruption, and crime. Violence has become a state-sponsored occurrence. We are reaching out to people, and they want change, change, and only change for the welfare of Bengal.
The TMC has made Bengal the epicentre of anarchy and infiltration across the border as part of its appeasement politics. Whenever Bangladesh unleashes atrocities on Hindus, people of a particular community in many bordering areas celebrate. But the days are coming closer when, through a BJP government, Bengal will deport those who have infiltrated from across the border.
If voted to power, how will the BJP tackle infiltration?
Our government will set an example of good governance, identifying infiltrators, Rohingyas, and others who have intruded across the porous Indo-Bangla borders, and deport them in a mission-mode approach.
Do you believe SIR will identify illegally enrolled voters?
Yes, definitely. It will help clean the system. Those who claim to be natives of this blessed soil of Bengal will have no problem undergoing the SIR and supporting it. I can say that consolidation of the majority community in West Bengal has already taken place, and the kind of medieval-era violence we see now under TMC will no longer be tolerated.
TMC alleges that the NDA is blocking development funds for the state. Your response?
No investment has come into the state under TMC’s rule. Violence, supported by one particular community under TMC, has become dominant. The Centre has never given West Bengal step-motherly treatment. Look at the massive allocation of funds for railways and other sectors. But due to rampant corruption in the TMC, Bengal has been held back from its development journey.
What are the BJP’s core issues in the 2026 election?
Corruption, crime, appeasement, anarchy, and governance failure—especially in dealing with infiltration—are the key issues.
Minorities are said to be afraid of the BJP coming to power...
The BJP always stands by Indian Muslims the way it stands with Hindus and others. I say that no one dares to touch even a hair of the Hindus in West Bengal, the Hindu refugees, and the real Indian Muslims.