West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday wrote her fifth letter to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over the controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state.
In the letter, the CM described the exercise as "fundamentally flawed" and claimed that AI-driven digitisation of the 2002 electoral rolls was causing large-scale data mismatches and wrongful categorisation of genuine voters as having "logical discrepancies."
Accusing the EC of disregarding its own statutory processes followed over the last two decades, she said electors were being compelled to re-establish identity despite earlier corrections made after "quasi-judicial hearings."
"Such an approach, disowning its own actions and mechanisms spanning more than two decades, is arbitrary, illogical and contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution of India," she alleged.
Banerjee also alleged that no proper acknowledgement was being issued for documents submitted during SIR, claiming that the procedure was "fundamentally flawed."
She said the SIR hearing process had become "largely mechanical, driven purely by technical data", and was "completely devoid of the application of mind, sensitivity and human touch", claiming that it undermined "the bedrock of our democracy and constitutional framework."
In her earlier letters, Mamata urged the CEC to "halt" the SIR in the state calling it "unplanned, arbitrary and adhoc exercise." She also flagged multiple deaths, including suicides of Booth Level Officers (BLO), allegedly due to workload, stress and anxiety related to the SIR exercise.
In a letter dated January 10, Mamata alleged that the Election Commission's objective regarding SIR "seems neither of correction nor of inclusion in the electoral rolls, but solely of deletion and of exclusion."
"...this reflects a disturbing pattern of political bias and autocratic high handedness by an institution that is expected to function as a constitutional authority. The ECI appears to have descended to a level that is difficult to comprehend and deeply alarming for any democratic society," she said, targeting the national poll panel.
Earlier, Mamata called the SIR a "huge scam" conducted with the help of AI tools. She also alleged that the poll agency was using mobile applications developed by the BJP's IT cell to conduct the ongoing SIR in the state.
More than 58 lakh voters were deleted from the draft rolls published on December 16, after the initial phase of SIR in the state. Out of the 7.6 crore total voters, the EC has also raised speculation regarding the "genuineness" of about 1.66 crore voters, who have been called for hearing to verify their documents again.