CPI-M ‘exposes’ dead voters in pilot roll scan; BJP demands fair revision
The Statesman | 26 October 2025Addressing a press conference in Jadavpur last evening, CPI-M central committee member Sujan Chakraborty presented what he described as “documentary evidence” of irregularities in the voter list. “We have scanned the rolls in several booths and found the names of numerous deceased persons. In Booth 165 of Jadavpur, for instance, there are 708 voters. We identified 56 of them as deceased, submitted death certificates to the Election Commission, and only then were those names removed,” Chakraborty said, holding up papers in support of his claim.
He added that the problem persisted in other booths as well. “In Booth No. 152, out of 830 names, 65 were found to be of deceased persons. Despite submitting all relevant documents, 17 names still remain on the list,” he alleged. Similar findings have emerged from the Sonarpur South Assembly constituency, where the party conducted another round of checks.
“The Election Commission’s job is not to determine citizenship – that is the responsibility of the home ministry,” Chakraborty said. “The Commission must act as a symbol of people’s trust, not as a tool to fulfil any political party’s agenda. While the Trinamul Congress wants to retain dead voters, the BJP wants to declare genuine voters as ‘D-voters’,” he alleged.
Chakraborty also announced that the party would expand this “roll verification project” across other constituencies based on the Jadavpur and Sonarpur South models. “We will continue this exercise to ensure that every legitimate voter’s name stays on the list and every false entry is removed,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has reiterated its demand for a comprehensive and transparent revision of the state’s voter rolls. “The people of West Bengal want an accurate voter list,” said state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya. “The names of the deceased, infiltrators, and duplicate voters must be removed. Elections being held with one person’s name appearing in four places must stop,” he added. Echoing similar concerns, Union minister Sukanta Majumdar recently alleged that the Trinamul Congress’s resistance to the SIR exercise “reveals its dependence on fake and dead voters” as part of its electoral strategy.
Governor CV Ananda Bose has, however, expressed confidence in the Election Commission’s handling of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal. “India has a matured democracy. Any issue that arise will be resolved within the framework of the Constitution and the law,” he said.
