TMC brass to hold meet on voter list complaints today
Times of India | 6 March 2025
Kolkata: TMC brass will meet at Kolkata's Trinamool Bhawan on Thursday to take stock of complaints of voter list discrepancies that have been emerging statewide. In addition to EPIC numbers of Bengal voters being linked to those outside the state, some have claimed that their names have gone missing from electoral rolls, and deceased voters have "re-emerged".
After CM Mamata Banerjee flagged the issue at Netaji Indoor Stadium on Feb 27, Trinamool had on Tuesday dismissed EC's clarifications on duplicate voter ID numbers as a "cover-up" and cited the poll panel's own guidelines to assert that two cards cannot have identical numbers. On Monday, MPs Derek O'Brien, Sagarika Ghose and Kirti Azad had called the matter an "EPIC scam" and given EC 24 hours to "accept its mistake".
A 36-member core committee had been formed by the CM to look into alleged EPIC duplication. It is chaired by party state president Subrata Bakshi and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee is a member.
The meeting on Thursday is going to be the third leg of the party's efforts to press this issue. A Trinamool senior said apart from taking stock of reports being received from the districts, the party may also consider sending a delegation to EC and also raise the issue in Parliament, which convenes again from March 10.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said: "The primary issue flagged by CM Banerjee is EPIC cards of genuine Bengal voters being linked online with voters from other states, without any physical verification. This is a deep conspiracy."
"This has happened in Maharashtra and Delhi before, but it was not detected. In Bengal, CM Banerjee spotted it. The door-to-door voter list verification by Trinamool Congress will continue till all anomalies are rectified," headded.
On BJP's allegations that this was a ploy by Trinamool to target Bengali Hindu voters, Ghosh said: "Trinamool gets votes from all religions. It is a secular party, both in its beliefs and actions. Instead of obfuscating facts and running away after being caught, they (BJP) should explain how this happened in the first place."
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