By Mukesh 
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday (April 4, 2026) challenged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to hold a meeting with people whose names have been deleted from the electoral rolls in Malda district.
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“I challenge Amit Shah to hold a meeting here in Malda and speak to the people whose names have been deleted. The BJP must fall at people’s feet and beg for their forgiveness for bringing them this misery. I ask people to respond through EVMs,” the Trinamool Congress chairperson said, addressing a public gathering in Malda. Mr. Shah had recently accompanied BJP candidates, including Suvendu Adhikari, during nomination filing from Bhabanipur and said that he would spend 15 days in the poll-bound State.
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The district has been on the boil following the gherao of judicial officers engaged in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) by a mob of thousands. The officials were rescued on Wednesday night by a large police contingent. On Thursday, the Supreme Court came down heavily on the protesters, calling it a “brazen attempt” to browbeat officers and a challenge to the authority of the top court.
About 60 lakh names have been sent for adjudication, with a deletion rate of about 40%. More than 63 lakh names have already been deleted from the electoral rolls of the State.
The prime accused in the gherao, Moffakkerul Islam, a lawyer who had contested the 2021 election on an AIMIM ticket, was arrested by the West Bengal police. Thirty-four others were also arrested before the case was handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Speaking at the meeting, the Chief Minister said, “The culprits behind the violence in Malda’s Mothabari have escaped while investigators are harassing the innocent locals in the name of a probe.”
Claiming that the BJP had taken away people’s voting rights, Ms. Banerjee said, “Tomorrow, they will take away your land and language. Meat, fish and eggs are not allowed to be eaten in BJP-ruled States,” she said.
“I know many people who voted for the BJP previously will not vote for them this time. They understand that Bengal is being humiliated. Several members of their families, too, have lost voting rights. Be it minorities, Hindus, STs and SCs, selective deletion has happened,” she said.
The Chief Minister said some members of her own family had also been deleted from the voting list and asked, “Are we all infiltrators?”
Referring to local problems like riverbank erosion in Malda, she said, “One can’t get a glimpse of ‘Mota Bhai’ when erosion happens. He is nowhere to be found when natural calamities strike, and only comes here and shouts during polls.”
Urging voters in Malda to support her party, the Chief Minister said people of the constituency voted for the Congress and the BJP in the past.
“You voted for the Congress and the BJP in the Lok Sabha. If you vote for them in the upcoming Vidhan Sabha polls, then who will fight for your voting rights?” she asked.
The district has 12 assembly seats. In 2021, the Trinamool Congress won eight, while the BJP bagged four. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, of the two Lok Sabha seats, one went to the Congress and the other to the BJP.