Overview
- TMC marked National Voters’ Day with protests across Bengal alleging eligible voters were being sidelined, as the Bengal CEO said the SIR ‘logical discrepancies’ lists were uploaded and began to be displayed and rejected claims of mass exclusions and suicides.
- Abhishek Banerjee ordered immediate activation of constituency war rooms and formation of ‘booth raksha committees’, and he said a party delegation will move the Election Commission over alleged misuse of ‘logical discrepancies’.
- Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP and Election Commission of turning SIR into a tool for ‘vote theft’, echoing Gujarat opposition claims that nearly 9–10 lakh Form-7 deletion objections were suddenly filed between January 16 and 18.
- In Kerala, CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan wrote to the CEO flagging about 26 lakh new voter inclusions during SIR, questioning verification practices and saying booth-level officers were unaware of many additions.
- Separately, Congress leaders in Delhi set Kerala poll targets, urged unity, and deferred naming a chief ministerial face until after the election, as Shashi Tharoor skipped the meeting and senior leaders cited his prior commitments.