TMC inserted 13 lakh bogus voters in Bengal electoral rolls: BJP’s Suvendu complains to CEO

Kolkata, Nov 12 (PTI) Senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Wednesday lodged a complaint with the Chief Electoral Officers (CEO) of West Bengal, accusing the ruling Trinamool Congress of inserting names of over 13 lakh fake voters in the electoral rolls ahead of the 2026 assembly polls.

The leader of the opposition in the state assembly, accompanied by other senior functionaries of the party, went to the CEO’s office with a large volume of papers claiming it contained names of 13.25 lakh bogus voters, and demanded prompt action by the EC at the earliest.

He also charged a section of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) engaged for the ongoing SIR of the electoral rolls with working in connivance with the ruling party to retain names of those fake voters.

"We have submitted list of 5,700 EROs (Electoral Registration Officers) who have either been recruited in violation of EC guidelines, or working in a biased, partisan manner," Adhikari said.

In one constituency in South 24 Parganas district, the TMC insisted that names of all 11,896 dead voters be retained, the BJP leader claimed.

“We warn if that happens, the BJP will not take things lying down," he said.

The Nandigram MLA said that the CEO has noted down their complaints, promised to look into every case and revert to them by November 16.

"He (CEO) has claimed that 70 per cent of the number of complaints has been cross checked and his office will let us know (about the outcome). But we will not sit idle and take necessary action after seeing their response," Adhikari said.

He said at least 65 official complaints were reported against BLOs since the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls started on November 4 where the BLOs were either found distributing enumeration forms in clubs or TMC offices or rooms of organisations controlled by ruling party leaders.

"In each case, we wanted to know what action has been taken by the EC," he said.

Adhikari alleged that 50,000 police personnel in the state were acting like TMC cadres, and claimed that their roles are under the scanner of the Commission.

Accusing the BJP leader of resorting to false rhetoric, Trinamool Congress spokesperson Joy Prakash Majumdar said, "The EC has undertaken SIR exercise ignoring the views of TMC and other opposition parties. Still, Suvendu Adhikari is raking up concocted issues. He only wants to hog the limelight." Why Adhikari is meddling into the EC's function, Majumdar asks. PTI SUS NN