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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday (October 28, 2025) said that a 57-year-old resident of Khardah in State’s North 24 Parganas died by suicide leaving behind a note that says, “NRC is responsible for my death”. Calling the death a “ direct consequence of BJP’s venomous propaganda” the Chief Minister said “What greater indictment can there be of the BJP’s politics of fear and division?”. The social media post by the Chief Minister linking the death of the Khardah resident with the NRC is the first response after the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday announced SIR in 12 States, including West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress chairperson had in the past linked SIR with NRC and said that the BJP are attempting NRC in the guise of SIR. “It shakes me to the very core to imagine how, for years, BJP has tormented innocent citizens with the threat of NRC, spreading lies, stoking panic and weaponising insecurity for votes. They have turned constitutional democracy into a draconian law-regime, where people are made to doubt their own right to exist,” Ms. Banerjee said. The Chief Minister said that those who sit in Delhi and preach nationalism have pushed ordinary Indians to such despair that they are dying in their own land, fearing they will be declared ‘FOREIGNERS’. While the Chief Minister did not refer to SIR in her post, she said that Bengal government will never allow NRC and urged the Central government to “stop this heartless game once and for all” “ I demand that the Central Government stop this heartless game once and for all. Bengal will never allow NRC, and never allow anyone to strip our people of their dignity or belonging. Our soil belongs to Maa, Mati, Manush, not to those who thrive on hate. Let the Delhi Zamindars hear this loud and clear: Bengal will resist, Bengal will protect and Bengal will prevail,” she added. The Chief Minister’s response came on the day when major political parties including the Trinamool Congress participated in all party meeting with the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal on SIR. BJP leader Sisir Bajoria who participated in the meeting with CEO said that Trinamool Congress was responsible for death of the Kharda resident as the party was saying that SIR was same as NRC.
