Mamata Banerjee In Supreme Court: Political Optics, Implications For Bengal

"It's not the Election Commission, it's a WhatsApp commission," Mamata Banerjee exclaimed on Wednesday before the Chief Justice of India's bench in the Supreme Court. For the first time in the country's legal history, a sitting chief minister argued a case that she filed against the poll body in the top court.

In a packed courtroom, she began with seeking permission to make her submission. And what unfolded next in Delhi came with a greater bet on the election-bound West Bengal.

"The Election Commission is bulldozing the people of Bengal. In the first phase, ECI deleted 56 lakh voters. They didn't get a chance to submit form 6. My submission is that they are only targeting Bengal. They have appointed micro-observers only in Bengal," she claimed, referring to the cleansing of voter rolls under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.

As the eight-minute-long intervention unfolded in the Supreme Court, political observers in West Bengal kept a keen focus on the development.

Decoded: Mamata Banerjee In The Supreme Court And The Bengal SIR Hearing

For author and political observer Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, Banerjee scored political brownie points in optics, though the fight against anti-incumbency might not be easy. 

"Mamata Banerjee stood inside the courtroom to take on the Election Commission politically, and she scored political brownie points and took the lead in the campaign. But if this issue of SIR is her only anti-incumbency fight, only time will tell, as the opposition in Bengal continues to raise issues like unemployment, women's safety, development, and governance," Bhattacharya told NDTV. 

Bengal is bracing for a high-intensity electoral fight between the BJP and the ruling Trinamool in the coming months. For Trinamool, their leader's high political optics in New Delhi sent out the message that Banerjee is leading the fight from the front for the people of Bengal. 

'Street Fighter Optics'

Ishani Nashkar, professor at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, observed how Mamata has drawn political mileage in New Delhi but still must fight anti-incumbency back in her state. 

"It was indeed significant what the chief minister of Bengal did at the Supreme Court today. Her resilience and street fighter optics have drawn the political mileage, but state polls are fought on local issues, and the party that is in power fights anti-incumbency. The third term makes it deep. Will SIR strike out corruption allegations, governance, and even the recent IPAC raid electorally, we will have to see," said Nashkar.

In the rival camp, former BJP state president Dilip Ghosh mocked the chief minister's changing roles from a writer, painter, and singer to a lawyer. "She knows that in 2026, she will lose Bengal. So she's looking for alternative work," Ghosh quipped while speaking to the media. 

Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee, who accompanied 'Didi'--as Mamata Banerjee is fondly called by her supporters--inside the courtroom, said the country was watching her fight against the BJP. She's likely to appear again in the Supreme Court on Monday, if it goes as per her schedule. 

Read: "Justice Crying...", Mamata Banerjee, In Top Court, Tells Chief Justice On SIR

Praises poured in from an opposition camp too. Samajwadi Chief Akhilesh Yadav put out a photograph of Banerjee in a black cloak, saying, "Whenever the fight is against injustice, you have to change your character." 

'Covering Political Dishonesty'

However, back home, the politics remained quite complicated. West Bengal Congress leader Soumya Aich called it an attempt by Banerjee to cover her party's political dishonesty. 

"There were so many scams under her regime, but we've never seen her stand for the people legally. But now, to cover her political dishonesty, she's gone to Supreme Court as an eyewash," he said.

Mamata Banerjee holds a law degree from Kolkata's Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College. An old black-and-white photograph of her with a teacup wearing her black gown went viral ahead of the hearing in the Supreme Court. 
In several public rallies, she has spoken about her early years of legal practice. She last practiced actively around 2003-04, but never argued in the Calcutta High Court. She had enrolled in the Bar Council. Since she's not registered under the Supreme Court, she appeared as a party-in-person.