TMC starts drive to weed out ‘bogus voters’ in Kol today
Times of India | 1 March 2025
Kolkata: Mayor Firhad Hakim will start visiting Bhowanipore households from Saturday to reach out to individual voters and cross-check whether their EPIC cards are linked with people outside Bengal. Along with Hakim, Trinamool Congress KMC councillors will also get in touch with voters in their wards. The party's move follows CM Mamata Banerjee alleging largescale voter fraud in the state.
Hakim told reporters on Friday that he would concentrate first on Chetla neighbourhoods and then move on to the adjacent wards to identify "ghost voters". "I have asked our councillors to jump into action and identify ghost voters in their respective wards at the earliest. Right now, as public representatives, this is our prime responsibility," he said.
"Our councillors will do the initial task of scrutiny after doing rounds in their wards. The matter then will be taken up by our party's IT cell," Hakim added.
The Kolkata mayor said BJP's move to garner votes by unfair means would be defeated. Criticising BJP netas for seeking votes on the lines of caste, creed and religion, he said: "Our chief minister has taken the initiative to unmask BJP. The way BJP netas took help of bogus voters in Maharashtra and Delhi to win has shaken us."
Trinamool said the CM had "closed the curtains" on the bogus voter scam in Bengal. Party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh told reporters: "This happened in Maharashtra and Delhi before. The opposition there could not detect this malpractice, which helped BJP win both assembly polls. In Bengal, this plot has been sniffed out, and party workers and netas across all booths will separate the chaff from the grain."
"Why would voters from outside the state get enrolled online with the same EPIC as genuine Bengal voters? This is nothing but a ploy to pack the voter list with outsiders and displace genuine local voters," he added.
Scoffing at BJP's complaint to EC, Ghosh said: "Their lies have been exposed, and now they are making baseless allegations. Why are they so touchy if EC is blamed for this issue? When BJP politicians issue threats in the name of EC and central agencies, are they respecting them or denigrating them? BJP considers these constitutional bodies to be their party wings, pre-empting what they will do. This is nothing but a feeble attempt to deflect attention from the main issue: that bogus voters from other states are flooding Bengal. And CM Banerjee has called it out."