‘Secret in rolls, not in EVMs’: TMC raises ‘vote chori’ pitch
Times of India | 1 January 2026
Kolkata: The secret behind ‘vote chori' is in list manipulations and not EVMs, said Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday, after a meeting with the EC full bench. "If Congress, NCP (SP) AAP and RJD had caught the trick, BJP would have lost all state polls (since 2024 Lok Sabha election)," Banerjee went on to add.
Debunking EC claims that SIR had led to a higher voter participation in Bihar, the Diamond Harbour MP said, "If you knock out voters from the electoral roll, voting percentages are bound to increase. It is not rocket science." Banerjee was leading a 10-member Trinamool team to Nirvachan Sadan in Delhi.
Taking aim at CEC Gyanesh Kumar, Banerjee said: "I told him clearly that he was weaponising electoral rolls. At one point, a finger was raised at me. I told him clearly... I am elected by the people and we are answerable to the people. Unlike him, we do not have to play ball with his masters. The CEC thought they could silence us by their posturing but Bengal is of a different mettle." He added: "It is public knowledge that he (Kumar) was the former cooperation (ministry) secretary. Who was the cooperation minister then? Amit Shah."
"Earlier, voters chose their govt, now the govt is choosing its voters. Other (opposition) parties did not catch this trickery, but we did. A thief will steal unless stopped. Merely crying against ‘vote chori' will not help," he added.
Banerjee then took up the SIR issue. "Overnight in Bengal, EC came out with a list of 1.3 crore voters with logical discrepancies. Why? Because the draft list published on Dec 16 had only 58 lakh voter deletions, much less than other states including Gujarat. This threatened to rip apart BJP's claims of 1-1.5 crore Rohingya and Bangladeshis in Bengal's voter list. So immediately, within hours with the help of a magic wand and an unknown algorithm, EC comes out with this list of 1.3 crore logical discrepancies. And they are hiding this list. It is not public, but people can be axed from the voter list based on it," he said, and reminded reporters that in the last SIR list, there was no such thing as a "suspicious list".
He also criticised the EC for barring BLAs from the hearing. "Our reasoning is simple. A party poll agent can be inside a booth during voting. BLA-2s were authorised by the EC itself to work with BLOs during SIR enumeration. Why shouldn't they be allowed in the hearings then? If there is a cogent reason, put it down in an official circular. EC will not do that, because they know the moment they do it, we will drag them to court. A constitutional body like the EC cannot work on verbal instructions and WhatsApp messages. If EC does not issue an official circular, BLAs will remain during hearings."
On the issue of relief for elderly voters, Banerjee said: "People who are above 60, are physically unwell, why should they be dragged to hearing centres? All central, state notifications classify elderly as those over 60 years of age, who are entitled to some relief. Why will EC not reach out to these people, instead of them going to EC hearing centres."