Abhishek Banerjee calls for stricter vigil to catch ghosts in Bengal voters’ list

Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee addresses a meeting in Kolkata on February 27.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday held a meeting with party leaders and claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party was planning to add 25 lakh fake voters in the State’s voter list before the Assembly polls in 2026.

“BJP’s plan in Bengal is to remove 25 lakh voters and add 25 lakh new voters,” Mr. Banerjee told the party leaders during a virtual meeting. This was the first meeting by the party general secretary after party chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee raised the issue of fake voters last month.

Mr. Banerjee was joined by senior party leader and State president Subrata Bakshi in the virtual meeting where leaders from all the districts joined. The Diamond Harbour MP made reference to the increase in the number of voters in Maharashtra and said that the Opposition parties could not catch the fraud.

‘Caught the fraud’

“Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena (UBT) have made this mistake in Maharashtra and could not catch the fraud in the voter list. Mamata Banerjee has caught this fraud. West Bengal but not Uttar Pradesh or Maharashtra,” Mr. Banerjee pointed out.

The Trinamool leader announced that electoral roll supervisors will be appointed by the party and committees will be set up at the districts, blocks, panchayats, municipalities and booth level. Mr. Banerjee said that house-to-house verification of voters’ lists will continue by party workers.

“If there is any doubt, the information will have to be given to the designated worker. At the panchayat level, this committee will be named panchayat electoral roll supervisor. The name of the town committee will be called town electoral roll supervisor,” he said.

The meeting assumes significance as the Trinamool general secretary has been absent in the earlier meetings held by senior party leaders on the issue. On March 11, a 10-member delegation of Trinamool Congress comprising MPs from both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha met Election Commission officials in Delhi and raised several questions, including why the issue of duplicate EPIC (Electoral Photo Identification card) numbers was kept buried, allegedly for several years, until it was raised by party chairperson Mamata Banerjee on February 27 this year.

BJP’s complaint

The BJP leadership is also raising discrepancies in the voters list but unlike the claim of the ruling party in the State that voters from other States have made it to the West Bengal voters list, the BJP claims Bangladeshi nationals have been enrolled in the list. A BJP delegation has also met EC officials on the same issue on March 11.

Speaking about the results of last year’s Lok Sabha polls, Mr. Banerjee said that the party had lost two Lok Sabha seats in Purba Medinipur because of internal strife among leaders of the party. Mr. Banerjee urged party leaders to work in a united manner for next year’s Assembly election.