The scale of protests intensified after February 28, when the Election Commission released a preliminary “final” post-SIR list showing 60 lakh voters marked “under adjudication” and over 5 lakh listed as “deleted”. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee also launched her indefinite sit-in at Esplanade, protesting the alleged arbitrary deletions from the voters’ list. Saidur Rahman, an Arabic teacher at Alia University and a voter in Malda, was at Park Circus Maidan. On Friday, protesters formed a human chain at Park Circus Maidan, a site with historical significance in Calcutta’s protest movements. Even at Mamata’s Esplanade protest, many came not because they were Trinamool workers.

Source: The Telegraph March 07, 2026 15:29 UTC