Days after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that BJP is adding fake voters in voter lists, the Trinamool Congress leaders, councillors and panchayat members on Saturday began their door-to-door campaign to scrutinise the voter lists in their area, ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections in the state.
State Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim carried out the voter list verification drive in the Chetla area of south Kolkata, while North Bengal Development Minister Udayan Guha scrutinised the voter list in his Dinhata, assembly constituency.
“The BJP is trying to manipulate the electoral rolls by bringing in fake voters from other states. So, along with our party workers, we are on a door-to-door visit to verify the voter list,” Hakim told mediapersons.
Local TMC leaders were also busy in a similar exercise in the Bhabanipur assembly constituency of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The verification drive is being carried out by party workers in other places as well, as instructed by Banerjee.
Meanwhile, CEO, West Bengal of Election Commission of India (ECI) posted on its “X” handle: “BLOs, AEROs, EROs and CEOs, in any State/Union Territory, as per the Representation of the People Act, 1950, the Voters Registration Rules, 1960 and the Voters Roll Manual (tinyurl.com/3h3ftkh7), the booth level agents appointed by political parties work towards correcting the voter list with the active participation of the agents. If there is any specific claim or objection, the concerned person among the 80,633 BLOs, 3,049 AEROs, and 294 EROs in West Bengal should be informed first. @ECISVEEP @SpokespersonECI.”
On Thursday, CM Banerjee had accused the BJP of adding fake voters from other states to the electoral rolls with the alleged backing of the Election Commission of India (EC), claiming that the party had used similar tactics to secure victories in Assembly elections in other states.
On Friday, a BJP delegation including Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari and other BJP MLAs went to the chief electoral office (CEO) and handed over a memorandum, stating, “We bring to your notice that on February 27, 2025, the Hon’ble Chief Minister Smt Mamata Banerjee, while addressing the TMC party at Netaji Indoor Stadium made it clear that steps should be taken to remove 4,000 to 5,000 voters…”
— with PTI