Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party will lose Gujarat to win West Bengal. The statement was made addressing an anti-SIR rally in Bongaon.
"I am making this prediction... the BJP is going to be defeated in Gujarat (Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state). To win Bengal they will lose Gujarat," she said.
Notably, the BJP has held power in Gujarat consecutively since 1990, when the Congress was in power. In 2022, the BJP won 156 of the state's 182 seats and bagged nearly 50 per cent of the vote share.
The revision of voter rolls is currently underway in West Bengal, where every voter must submit a partially pre-filled unique Enumeration Form to their respective Booth Level Officer (BLO) by December 4. The draft roll will be published on December 9.
While addressing the anti-SIR rally, she also warned that any attempt to target her in the state would trigger political repercussions across the country.
'EC is acting on BJP's behalf'
Banerjee accused the EC of functioning as the “BJP Commission”, alleging that the SIR exercise was being carried out in an unplanned and coercive manner. Claiming that 35 people had died due to what she described as the EC’s “drive to purify the electoral roll”, she assured residents that genuine voters had nothing to fear.
BJP Responds
The BJP dismissed her allegations. West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya said the SIR was taking place across India and accused Banerjee of creating unnecessary tension. “A data entry operator is required to assist the BLOs, but Mamata Banerjee is not providing one. Nothing is going to happen by the letter,” he said speaking to news agency ANI.
Nationwide SIR
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on October 27 announced that the second phase of Special Intensive Review (SIR) will be carried out in 12 states and union territories. The final electoral rolls will be published on February 7, 2026.
