EC a ‘Tughlaqi Commission’ run by a political party, targeting people like terrorists: Mamata

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”.

‘Tughlaqi’ is synonymous with impractical and whimsical authoritativeness, derived from the mercurial 14th century Delhi sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq.

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”.

Ms. Banerjee said that 160 people lost their lives due to “SIR anxiety and work-related pressure” in the State.

She said that if State government staff are “penalised by EC, we will 100% protect them”. “We will promote those Bengal government officers who will be demoted by EC,” she said.

Around 58 lakh voters were deleted from the draft electoral rolls published in the State under the dead, permanently shifted and untraceable categories. The poll body summoned more than 94.49 lakh people for hearings citing logical discrepancies; 31.68 lakh were classified as “unmapped” and were asked to appear for the hearings.