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

Abhishek Banerjee warns of BJP's plan to add fake voters in West Bengal, calls for thorough verification process.

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.

“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.