TMC alleges BJP-ECI nexus as over 63L names deleted from Bengal voter list

Kolkata: In a fierce criticism of the Election Commission following Saturday’s release of the post-SIR voter rolls in West Bengal, which saw over 63 lakh names deleted, the ruling Trinamool Congress accused the poll panel of carrying out “invisible rigging” in collusion with the BJP.

During a Press conference, Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said that the party’s leaders would give their reactions only after thoroughly examining the electoral rolls. He, however, made it clear that this will have no impact on the elections and Mamata Banerjee will again come back to power for the 4th term.

“BJP had carried out massive discrepancies in the voter list in Bihar, Haryana and other states. In Bengal too, they hatched a similar conspiracy. A procession of death was carried out in the state under the pretext of SIR. It was done by the ECI on the instruction of the BJP. In many places, BLOs said that valid citizens were removed from the voter list. The ECI has made a complete mess out of the SIR,” he said.

Slamming BJP leaders’ claim that 1-2 crores names would be removed, Ghosh said: “BJP

had said that there were many Rohingyas in the state. Where are they? They claimed that 1-2 crore names would be removed. BJP tried to delete the names of valid voters by pressurising the ECI. It will come back to the BJP as a boomerang.”

Ghosh also added that the ECI had deleted the names of those who had died or transmigrated to other places, and such deletions would have no impact in the upcoming elections. He said that in every election, around 25 per cent of voters do not cast their votes. The names, which have been deleted, represent only that percentage of voters.

Meanwhile, the names of a Trinamool Congress councillor and his family members were also deleted from the electoral rolls. In a post on X, Trinamool Congress wrote: The full, filthy extent of @BJP4India and @ECISVEEP’s SILENT INVISIBLE RIGGING now stands exposed before Bengal’s eyes. In the final electoral rolls, Naihati Municipality Ward No. 2 Councillor Sushanta Sarkar and his mother Arati Sarkar have been DELETED. An elected representative and his family erased like ghosts in this voter-purge conspiracy.”

It further stated: “Is the Election Commission wearing blinders, stumbling in the dark, unable to spot flesh-and-blood voters right under its nose? Or is this Mr. Vanish Kumar’s twisted vanishing act where genuine voters are wiped out with a flick of his magic wand, all to rig the game for his Delhi Zamindars?”