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Had Netaji been alive, ECI would have called him for SIR hearing: Mamata Banerjee
ET Bureau | January 24, 2026 3:38 AM CST

Synopsis

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday alleged a conspiracy behind the ongoing special intensive revision of electoral rolls, claiming that nearly two crore names could be deleted from the state’s voter list. Speaking at a programme marking Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s birth anniversary in Kolkata, she said 58 lakh names had already been removed and 1.38 crore flagged under “logical discrepancies” out of a total 7.66 crore voters.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee said on Friday that had Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose been alive, he would have been called by the poll panel for a hearing as part of the special intensive revision of electoral rolls or clarifications would have been sought from him under 'logical discrepancies'. Alleging conspiracy, she said two crore out of the total 7.66 cr names in Bengal's electoral list will be deleted.

Speaking at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's birth anniversary in Kolkata on Friday, Banerjee said, "Already 58 lakh names have been deleted in a one-sided way and 1.38 crore people's names are identified under logical discrepancies, which make it two crore voters out of the total seven crore. What kind of conspiracy is this?

Netaji's kin Chandra Kumar Bose, who was called for a hearing, was present at the dais with the chief minister on Friday.


"Around 110 people have died and 3-4 have committed suicide. After so many years of independence, we have to prove that we are Indians! Why will there be no cases against ECI," she asked. There is an attempt to "create confusion" and "distort" history, amid intolerance, and attempt to insult freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Rabindranath Tagore.

"There is an attempt to attack Bengali language and 'asmita' and question the democratic rights of people. But they will come to Bengal before elections and read speeches on teleprompter and say 'Bankimda', she said, without naming anyone. Banerjee said the birth anniversary of Netaji has not been declared as a national holiday.

We will write history: BJP Chief

State BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya said, "We will write history about the country which taught the world geometry and history which speaks about Binoy Badal Dinesh and Khudiram, not colonial history and the history of a family rule."


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