PM should quit, Lok Sabha dissolved if SIR held nationwide: Abhishek Banerjee

Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP and national general-secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday declared that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet should resign, and the Lok Sabha dissolved, if the Election Commission of India (ECI) acknowledges discrepancies in the country’s electoral rolls, which is why it is conducting the hugely controversial special intensive revision (SIR).

Banerjee, widely regarded as TMC supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s political heir, criticised what he described as a “selective approach” by the ECI. “The EC cannot say the voter list is fine in states such as Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, but flawed in West Bengal, Bihar or Tamil Nadu,” he told reporters at Kolkata’s Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport.

The controversy centres on the SIR of voter rolls — an exercise apparently meant to update and verify electoral lists ahead of elections. In Bihar, the process has drawn political fire after Opposition parties claimed to have found glaring anomalies, such as the inclusion of deceased individuals, duplicate entries, and voters with improbable ages — including the now widely cited case of a “124-year-old first-time voter” named Minta Devi.

In addition, the deletion of 65 lakh names and the ECI's refusal to share specifics of the deletions with the Supreme Court has reinforced suspicions about the intentions of the ECI.

Opposition leaders allege that such irregularities could be exploited to manipulate voter turnout or disenfranchise legitimate voters, especially in constituencies where the BJP faces stiff competition.

Will Supreme Court step in on electoral roll revision in Bihar?

Bihar was chosen for the SIR ahead of its assembly elections later this year, but the INDIA bloc has questioned why the EC did not extend the process to all states. Critics suspect that the selective rollout is politically motivated, designed to weaken opposition strongholds while leaving BJP-ruled states largely untouched.

The ECI has insisted that the SIR is a standard procedure carried out as needed, but it has not yet addressed calls for a nationwide exercise. “If SIR is conducted, it should be held across the country,” Banerjee said. “And the first step should be the resignation of the prime minister and his cabinet, followed by the dissolution of the Lok Sabha.”

The TMC leader argued that if the ECI believes irregularities exist in the voter list, the legitimacy of the current government — elected during the 2024 general election — is “null and void”. He pointed out that the same electoral roll was used to elect over 240 BJP MPs, as well as to determine the Lok Sabha composition that will choose India’s next President and vice-president.

Banerjee accused the BJP of initiating the voter roll revision in Bihar because it fears losing the upcoming state elections if “people are allowed to vote freely”. “Rules cannot be different for different states. They must be the same for all,” he asserted, demanding that SIR be implemented nationwide rather than in “selected states” only.

The BJP has dismissed such allegations, maintaining that the SIR is a routine procedure to ensure that voter rolls are accurate. The EC, meanwhile, has not commented on Banerjee’s demand for a nationwide revision or on his call for the government to step down.

With PTI inputs