Samik Bhattacharya. File.
| Photo Credit: ANI
West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president and Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya on Saturday (October 17, 2026) called for a fresh special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in the State, amidst protests raging across the country demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and scrapping of the SIR exercise.
Mr. Bhattacharya alleged that there was disruption and violence during the SIR exercise. “There is a need to have SIR once again here, because SIR was not properly carried out here. Papers were snatched away and set on fire. Papers were taken out from the vehicle of our MLA Agnimitra Paul and set on fire in presence of the police. BDO and Anagnwadi workers were attacked and roads were blocked,” he said.
The SIR process was held from October 2025 to February 2026 in West Bengal, just before the assembly elections. The exercise saw deletion of 91 lakh electors from the electoral rolls which was about 13% of all the voters in the State before the start of the voter list revision. The fate of about 38 lakh electors still hangs in balance before SIR tribunals set up before the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Kolkata protest
Protests against Gyanesh Kumar and SIR were also held in Kolkata last week with supporters of Left parties, Congress and Mamata All India Trinamool Congress (MAITC) holding protests.
Mr. Bhattacharya, who was speaking to a Bengali TV news channel ABP Ananda said that people in West Bengal “hero-worship” Gyanesh Kumar and there are demands that the country should honour him with Padma Awards.
Speaking about the protests by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), the BJP leader said that the agitation was being driven by politically irrelevant forces rejected by voters and lacked public support.
“Mobocracy can never replace democracy,” he said, cautioning against attempts to create disorder and directly challenge the administration and judiciary.
Published – October 17, 2026 10:57 pm IST
