New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party has used artificial intelligence to delete the names of millions of voters from the electoral rolls in the state. Addressing a public meeting at Barjora in Bankura district, she claimed that 54 lakh voters had already been removed and warned that the BJP’s larger objective was to eliminate nearly 1.5 crore names from the voters’ list in Bengal.
The Chief Minister described the alleged deletions as a direct attack on democratic rights and demanded the resignation of the Union Home Minister over the issue. She cautioned people against blindly trusting social media content, saying that advanced technologies like AI were being misused to manipulate voter data. According to her, duplicate entries were being created deliberately so that genuine voters would be denied their right to vote on polling day.
Banerjee warned that many voters may only realise the problem when they reach polling booths and discover that their vote has already been cast by someone else with a similar name. She urged citizens to remain alert and vigilant, calling the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls a serious threat to voters in the state.
Raising concerns over transparency, the Chief Minister said Booth Level Agents were not being allowed inside polling centres during SIR hearings. She alleged that instructions were being communicated informally and questioned why no written orders were being issued. Banerjee said her party would approach both the people and the courts to seek justice if the process continued without proper oversight.
She directed Booth Level Agents to remain present at Special Intensive Revision camps organised by the Trinamool Congress to assist voters summoned for hearings. Highlighting the human cost of the process, Banerjee cited instances of elderly citizens being called repeatedly for verification. She referred to the case of an elderly person from Purulia who was reportedly summoned for a hearing and later died by suicide, allegedly after being humiliated.
Questioning the sensitivity of the process, she also mentioned a 95 year old woman being asked to appear at an office requiring her to climb stairs and submit proof of citizenship. Banerjee accused authorities of harassing ordinary citizens under the guise of voter list revision and demanded an immediate halt to what she termed unjust and inhumane practices.
