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KOLKATA: Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee Monday wrote to CEC Gyanesh Kumar for the second time in 48 hours, alleging that EC was not issuing proper acknowledgments of documents submitted during SIR hearings and was instead marking them “not found” to disenfranchise genuine voters, reports Debashis Konar. She said, “The non-issuance of documentary acknowledgment deprives electors of proof of submission and places them at the mercy of internal record-keeping deficiencies… This defeats the very objective of SIR, which is intended to strengthen and purify the electoral roll.” After the 2002 SIR of the electoral roll, voters applied for changes in names and addresses, which were ratified by EC and included in 2025 poll rolls, Mamata said. “EC is now disregarding its own statutory processes followed consistently over two decades and compelling electors to once again establish their identity and eligibility,” she wrote. Mamata said that over 23 years, many electors submitted Form 8 with valid govt-issued documents and, after quasi-judicial hearings, their particulars were corrected. “Why should process revert to 2002? Does this imply all revisions were illegal?” she asked, calling the move arbitrary.
