Bengal SIR: Cricketer Mohammed Shami, TMC MP Dev, eminent poet Joy Goswami, others summoned by EC. Here's why

Indian cricket team fast bowler Mohammed Shami and his brother Mohammed Kaif have been issued notices to appear for a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) hearing before the Election Commission of India.

The notice was officially issued on Monday from Kartju Nagar School in the Jadavpur area of South Kolkata. Shami is a voter in Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Ward No. 93, which falls under the Rashbehari assembly constituency, according to a report by NDTV.

Shami's hearing has been scheduled between 9 and 11 January. Shami could not attend the scheduled hearing on Monday as he is representing Bengal in Rajkot in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He has reportedly informed the EC that he will appear for the hearing later, according to a report in The Indian Express.

Shami is originally from Uttar Pradesh, has been living in Kolkata for a long time due to his cricket career. He moved to Kolkata from Uttar Pradesh at a very young age on the advice of his coach.

Trinamool Congress MP Dev, also known as Deepak Adhikari, has received a summons for an SIR hearing. Three other members of his family have also been sent hearing notices regarding the SIR, according to media reports.

Actor-politician Dev was born in Ghatal in West Medinipur, and the family later moved to Mumbai. After completing his studies, Dev moved to Kolkata to pursue a career in acting. He currently lives in a flat in South City, South Kolkata. The actor’s family has also moved back to Kolkata.

Besides being a Tollywood superstar, Dev is also a three-time MP from his birthplace, Ghatal.

The ruling Trinamool Congress alleged that sending such a notice to Dev, an actor and elected political representative, is purely an act of harassment.

Among other personalities, poet Joy Goswami, popular Bengali actor Laboni Sarkar, her husband Kaushik Bandyopadhyay, and actor Anirban Bhattacharya have also been summoned by ECI.

SIR in Bengal

The Election Commission’s 27 October SIR instructions had asked voters to fill out forms and verify themselves or a family member in the electoral roll from the last intensive revision, held in 2002 in West Bengal.

The voters were required to be ‘mapped’ to the 2002 electoral roll, either through their own presence or that of a relative on that roll, to continue as voters in future.

On 16 December, the Election Commission published West Bengal's draft electoral rolls following SIR, deleting the names of more than 58 lakh voters on various grounds, including death and migration, and redrawing voter profiles across districts and border belts ahead of the 2026 assembly polls.

The exercise has sparked a political row in Bengal where election are scheduled later this year. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Monday that she will move court against SIR of electoral rolls and over the "inhumane" way it was conducted in the state.

Earlier, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee met with the Election Commission bench regarding the SIR of electoral rolls in West Bengal, and alleged that the party's concerns were not addressed and that the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) was “aggressive”.