Trinamul Congress has demanded a thorough investigation by the Election Commission of India as discrepancy in the voter list has been detected between the one published in 2002 and the one uploaded now.
2002 has been selected as the cut-off year.
Chandrima Bhattacharya, state finance minister and the president Trinamul Mahila Congress said after failing to take control over Bengal in 2021 and the subsequent fall in the number of MPs in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the BJP is trying out all sorts of nasty tactics to win the election. In all the by-elections, the BJP had failed miserably to perform. “BJP has unleashed a reign of terror along with deprivation to scare the people of Bengal before the implementation of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters’ list.
Kunal Ghosh, state general secretary of the party said it has come to the notice of the party that many disparities exist. He gave examples like, in booth No. 2 (Kaljani Aided Primary School) of Natabari AC, Cooch Behar, which now falls under Booth No. 303 of Khapaidanga village in Cooch Behar Uttar AC, the 2002 voter list recorded 717 names. Today, the online electoral roll shows only 140.
Similarly, in Booth No. 160 (Mathabhanga College, Room No. 2) of Panchagarh village in Mathabhanga AC, the 2002 voter list had 846 registered voters. Now, in Booth No. 2/244, the names stop at 416. Entries from 417 to 841 have disappeared without a trace.
In Guma-I gram panchayat of Habra-II block, Ashoknagar Assembly Constituency, North 24-Parganas, the 2002 voter list for Booth No. 159 shows no record of voters. Additionally, in the 2002 voter list for Booth No. 61, entries from serial numbers 343 to 414 are missing.
In Majherdabri, Alipurduar, even the names of the BLO’s father, mother, and brother have been deleted from the voter list, he pointed out.
“This is a major manipulation of the voter list and the ECI has done it before the implementation of SIR which is supposed to start on 4 November and continue till 4 December,” Mr Ghosh alleged.
He said the BJP leaders had manipulated the list which the ECI has subsequently uploaded on its website.
He said in the Natabari Assembly seat, the names of 140 voters exist in the 2002 list uploaded by the ECI now whereas the hard copy of the same list stated that 740 voters had existed in 2002. “How could this happen? Are we to believe that so many people in the single booth had died over the years,” Mr Ghosh asked.
He urged the party workers to match the hard copy of 2002 list with the list uploaded by the ECI now and report the discrepancy to the leaders. “You should be alert and keep your eyes and ears open. SIR is actually silent invisible rigging,” he said adding, “the party will launch a movement if the names of genuine voters are dropped from the electoral roll.”