West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee launched a sharp attack on Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday, December 5, 2025, alleging that the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is a strategic trick intended to pave the way for imposing President's Rule in the state. Addressing a rally in Berhampore, Murshidabad district, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo asserted that her government allowed the exercise to avoid giving the Centre a pretext to take direct control.
A Deliberate Trap to Create Panic
Banerjee framed the SIR as a political maneuver orchestrated from New Delhi. She claimed that had her administration blocked the special revision of voter lists, it would have provided the necessary grounds for the central government to invoke Article 356 and dismiss the state government. "We are not foolish enough to walk into the trap," she told the crowd, explaining her government's decision to permit the process.
She urged citizens not to succumb to fear amid the enumeration drive. "Don't be afraid of SIR. If we hadn't allowed it, they would have imposed President's Rule. Do you understand Amit Shah's trick?" Banerjee stated, rallying her supporters with a defiant message. "We will fight, we will win. They cannot starve us; they cannot take our property."
Rejecting NRC and Addressing Waqf Data Upload
In her speech, the Chief Minister made a forceful commitment to prevent the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) or any detention camps in West Bengal. "I will not allow NRC or detention camps in Bengal. Even if they slit my throat, no one will be driven out," she declared, receiving loud applause from her audience. She promised a legal fight to protect every resident, emphasizing Bengal's inclusive ethos.
Banerjee also turned to the simmering Waqf controversy within her party, where concerns were raised about land records being classified as religious sites. She accused "certain groups" of spreading misinformation on the issue. Seeking to reassure the community, she cited a resolution passed in the state Assembly that protects Waqf properties from forceful acquisition.
"Mutawallis (custodians of Waqf property) will upload the documents and give them to the state. There is nothing to fear," she said. This comment comes as her government directed district magistrates to upload Waqf data to the central UMID portal by the December 5 deadline, a move perceived by critics as a softening of her earlier opposition to the amended Waqf Act.
Escalating Rhetoric Against the BJP
The Chief Minister's remarks in Berhampore followed her accusations from the previous day, where she charged Amit Shah with "orchestrating" the SIR to unsettle voters and attempt to "capture Bengal by trickery." She argued that the hurried revision had backfired, creating panic and ultimately "digging the BJP's own grave."
Banerjee further accused the BJP of engaging in divisive religious politics over the SIR issue. In a pointed warning, she noted, "More than half of those who died in SIR-related incidents were Hindus. Don't cut the very branch you are sitting on." This statement aimed to counter the BJP's narrative and highlight the broader social unrest triggered by the electoral roll revision process.
The political confrontation over the SIR and related issues underscores the intense and ongoing power struggle between the TMC government in Kolkata and the BJP-led central government in New Delhi, setting the stage for further electoral battles in the state.
