November 6, 2025

KOLKATA: The political heat in West Bengal just jumped a notch! On Thursday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari slammed the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), accusing it of handing out birth certificates on a massive scale to suspicious individuals. Why? To help those who might be removed from the electoral list during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. He called this move a cunning political trick. Adhikari, who is also the leader of the opposition in the West Bengal assembly, told X, “This is nothing but a blatant attempt to manipulate Electoral Rolls and undermine the Democratic process. Birth Certificates are legal documents meant for citizens of our country; generally newborns or in some extremely rare cases; people seeking genuine late registrations. Birth Certificates are not tools for political engineering, with the malafide intention of changing the demography for vested political interests.” Adding fire to the situation, Adhikari shared a letter addressed to Kolkata municipal commissioner Sumit Gupta asking for details about birth certificates issued by the KMC in the past month. But the fierce ruling party, Trinamool Congress (TMC), fired back quickly. TMC state vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar called Adhikari’s accusations “preposterous.” He said, “The preposterous allegation is coming out of the deep-rooted frustration of BJP leaders who pinned their hopes on the SIR, thinking it would give them an advantage. Unfortunately, the SIR is rapidly eroding BJP’s support base because of the difficulties people are facing.” Majumdar also pointed out that birth and death certificates from KMC, municipalities, and panchayats follow strict rules. “If the BJP is not satisfied, it can go to court with specific allegations,” he added. The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is a voter list update process started by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday in 12 states including West Bengal. The Bengal BJP claims that the exercise will unearth at least 10 million Bangladeshi nationals in West Bengal, a state headed to assembly polls in 2026. As of now, Kolkata municipal commissioner Sumit Gupta has not responded to requests for comments. With politics boiling and election fever rising, this battle over birth certificates and voter lists is just the beginning. Will the dust settle or stir bigger storms? Stay tuned!

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Tags: Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Suvendu adhikari, Birth Certificates, Special intensive revision, West bengal, Bjp And Tmc,