ECI ‘manipulation & fraud’ puts 80L Bengal voters at risk of deletion: TMC

Kolkata: In a sharply worded statement raising serious concerns over the functioning of the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of “subverting India’s electoral process to benefit the BJP,” alleging that nearly 80 lakh voters in West Bengal are at risk of being struck off the rolls.

Saket Gokhale, TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP, outlined what he termed a “deeply compromised” Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

He alleged that the ECI deployed an unverified and “mysterious” AI-based software to map current voters with the 2002 electoral roll. According to him, the software translated Bengali names into English, resulting in serious distortions and spelling mismatches. These mismatches were subsequently flagged as “logical discrepancies,” triggering mass notices and hearings.

The post also claimed that as many as 1.67 crore voters were marked under this discrepancy category, effectively placing a vast section of the electorate under scrutiny. He described the move as a “digital filter” capable of arbitrarily excluding legitimate voters.

“Due to the compromised ECI & Gyanesh Kumar, hearings for 80 lakh valid voters have to be completed in just three days because a software was used to mark them as “logical discrepancies”. today, 8 million voters in Bengal are at the risk of being deleted solely due to the ECI’s manipulation & fraud. This is why CEC Gyanesh Kumar must be jailed for destroying India’s electoral process to help the BJP,” he wrote. The TMC further alleged that “micro-observers” appointed during the process were illegally empowered to recommend deletions, bypassing statutory electoral officers. These observers, the party claimed, acted on informal or “WhatsApp-based” instructions, raising questions over procedural transparency and accountability.

The party also pointed to the intervention of the Supreme Court of India and the Calcutta High Court, which oversaw the hearing mechanism after concerns were raised about the scale and pace of the exercise.

The TMC has argued that a revision process that ordinarily takes eight months was compressed into three, calling it a “deliberate and dangerous acceleration” ahead of elections. Describing the developments as nothing short of an assault on democratic safeguards, the TMC asserted that if proven, such large-scale irregularities would amount to a deliberate disenfranchisement of millions of legitimate voters. The party reiterated that accountability must be fixed at the highest level, stating that those found responsible - including the Chief Election Commissioner, if culpability is established - should face strict legal consequences.

TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee also criticised the large-scale deletion of voters during this ‘hasty’ revision process. She also expressed concern for the citizens who would be out of the final list, scheduled to publish on February 28. Though she asserted she would be fighting to establish democratic rights till the end.