Kolkata: Rallies, counter-rallies, and fiery speeches from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her chief critic, Suvendu Adhikari, escalated the state’s already hyper-charged political atmosphere on Tuesday which marked the effective start of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

The political activities, coupled with fresh reports of multiple deaths during the day allegedly provoked by citizenship trauma, signalled that the voter roll revision process would serve as the primary battleground for the assembly elections due next year.

The SIR exercise commenced with over 80,000 booth-level officers visiting homes to distribute over 16 lakh enumeration forms on the first day, a senior official said.

While Banerjee mounted a blistering attack on the BJP and th

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