Trinamool Congress distributes 2002 voter lists in Bengal amid fear over SIR exercise

The move, seen as an attempt to reassure anxious residents, comes as opposition parties accuse the Election Commission of working “in collusion” with the BJP to delete large numbers of names, particularly those belonging to communities that migrated from Bangladesh after Partition.

Local Trinamool leader and civic chairman Prabir Saha joined workers in handing out copies of the 2002 list.

“People are panicking over the SIR. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked us to stand by the people, so we’re going door-to-door distributing the old voter list, where their names already appear,” Saha said. “This will help ensure no legitimate citizen is excluded.”

The concerns stem from similar controversies in other states- notably Bihar, where nearly 38 lakh names were reportedly deleted from voter rolls during a recent revision.

Anxiety in Bengal has been heightened by confusion over acceptable identity proofs; initially, the Election Commission did not accept Aadhaar cards.

However, following a Supreme Court directive, both Aadhaar and voter ID cards can now serve as valid proof of citizenship.

Senior Trinamool leader Abhishek Banerjee, the party’s national general secretary, warned the Election Commission against any exclusion of Bengali voters. “If even one Bengali is left out through SIR or NRC, we will gherao the EC office in Delhi with one lakh people,” he said recently.

Meanwhile, the BJP’s Bengal unit has also stepped up activity, running hundreds of SIR help camps across border districts.

These camps, originally set up to assist with the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), are now also helping citizens prepare documents for the revision exercise.

The SIR process began on Thursday, with door-to-door verification scheduled to start on November 4.

The final updated voter list will be published on February 7, just months ahead of the 2026 Assembly election.