Trinamool Congress is attributing many of the Bengal deaths to suicides driven by SIR-related stress. On Tuesday, an assistant teacher in Uttar Pradesh’s Jaunpur district, serving as a BLO in Khempur gram panchayat, died by suicide.

Last week, Mamata wrote to the chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, urging him to stop the SIR exercise in Bengal.

She had claimed that 28 lives, including three BLOs, have already been lost in the State due to work pressure and stress caused by the SIR drive.

“Now, we must protect the valuable guidance that the Constitution provides, especially when democracy is at stake, when secularism is in an endangered situation, when federalism is being bulldozed, at this critical time,” Mamata wrote on her X.

“On this sacred day, we reaffirm our commitment to the core democratic values enshrined in our Constitution.”

“Voting rights are being snatched. Communal and social divisions are being encouraged. All rights are being snatched. We have to fight against this together,” she said.