West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday (February 17, 2026) slammed the Election Commission of India calling it a ‘Tughlaqi Commission’ run by a political party and said it is “targeting ordinary people like terrorists”.
The Chief Minister said the poll body deleted names of voters in Bengal during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls on “instructions from the BJP”.
Ms. Banerjee, who has opposed the SIR exercise, alleged that a “woman functionary in the BJP IT cell removed 58 lakh voters’ names in Bengal using AI.”
The SIR hearings ended in West Bengal on February 14 after a seven-day extension from the poll body.
The Chief Minister said the Commission was “defying” Supreme Court orders and “targeting voters and undermining democracy”, adding that by citing logical discrepancy, the Election Commission is “snatching away democratic rights of voters”.
