TMC councillor alleges conspiracy as his name goes missing from 2002 voters’ list
The Statesman | 7 November 2025
The name of councillor Ashok Rudra, along with those of his family members, is missing from the 2002 voters’ list of the Hirapur Assembly constituency (now Asansol South), he alleged. Mr Rudra is the councillor of Ward No. 78 of Asansol Municipal Corporation (AMC) and a former state president of the Trinamul Chhatra Parishad.
Addressing a Press conference at his Burnpur office today, the TMC teacher cell leader alleged that the BJP, in conspiracy with the Election Commission of India, has deliberately deleted his name and those of his family members from the 2002 voters’ list of the Hirapur Assembly seat.
“My grandfather, late Satish Chandra Rudra, was a freedom fighter. Since 1996, I have cast my vote in all Lok Sabha, Assembly and civic elections. But neither my late father Chandidas Rudra, my mother Jharna Rudra, nor I figure in that list. My grandfather worked in the railways at Bhagalpur, and my father retired from Adra under the South Eastern Railways in 1996. I possess a passport and all supporting documents, yet our names have been mysteriously deleted from the 2002 Hirapur Assembly voters’ list,” he alleged.
Meanwhile, former MLA of Pandaveswar Assembly constituency and current BJP leader Jitendra Tiwari has claimed on social media that the name of TMC leader Kamalesh Shaw, a member of Kendra Gram Panchayat, appears in two separate voters’ lists in the Pandaveswar Assembly segment of West Burdwan district.
“Not only is he running an SIR assistance camp and accompanying BLOs in distributing forms for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), but his name is also found in two lists. Such false and bogus voters exist in many more cases, and I urge the ECI to lodge FIRs and take necessary action. He is close to the MLA, and to rig the polls, the TMC has inducted such false and bogus voters. The Election Commission must delete those names during the SIR process,” Mr Tiwari alleged.
Responding to the charges, Kamalesh Shaw said it was the Election Commission of India’s responsibility to identify and correct such errors, adding that he had no knowledge of his name appearing in more than one voters’ list.
Meanwhile, BJP MLA from Durgapur West, Lakshman Ghorui, alleged that SIR forms were distributed today at the city bus stand by the concerned BLO, with TMC leaders present during the process, instead of going door-to-door to hand over the forms to voters as required.