Kolkata, Feb. 27 -- Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused the BJP of manipulating the voter list by enrolling "fake voters" from other states in the electoral rolls with the "blessings" of the Election Commission ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections.
She warned of staging a dharna before the office of the poll panel if the latter does not take corrective action towards transparency in electoral rolls and weed out fake voters.
"The cat is out of the bag now. How the BJP is manipulating the voters' list with the blessings of the Election Commission is very much clear. If I can go for a 26-day hunger strike, then we can stage dharna before the Election Commission's office for an indefinite period to press for demand to correct voter rolls and remove fake elector," Banerjee said recalling her 26-day hunger strike during the 2006 anti-land acquisition movement of Singur.
Addressing TMC's elected representatives, leaders and functionaries at the Netaji Indoor Stadium, Banerjee also questioned the recent appointment of Gyanesh Kumar as the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).
"I have respect for the Election Commission. But are you aware of the identity of the newly appointed CEC? He used to work as the Union Co-Operation secretary of which Amit Shah is the minister-in-charge. The BJP has appointed most officers in the Election Commission at their behest," said Banerjee.
Holding a sheaf of papers in her hands, Banerjee said she had got a list of names from South Dinajpur's Gangarampur and Murshidabad's Raninagar as samples of how old voters were being removed by new voters with the same photo identity card number issued by the Election Commission.
She alleged the BJP had hired two agencies which were including the names of people from distant states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana in the voters' list through the online system.
"The people working for these agencies have not conducted any field surveys. With the help of some assistant returning officers and data operators, they are manipulating the electoral rolls. People from Bengal will not be allowed to vote," she said declaring that online does not mean voters from Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab will get to vote here.
Banerjee claimed that her party's Rajya Sabha MP Sagorika Ghose had brought the matter to her attention.
"This is how they won in Maharashtra and Delhi. They (the Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress in Maharashtra and AAP in Delhi) failed to understand this but we have caught them. This must have happened in every district. We cannot let this go unchecked."
Banerjee announced a state-level committee headed by state president Subrata Bakshi comprising Abhishek Banerjee, Derek O'Brien, Sudip Bandyopadhyay and several other MPs, MLAs, state ministers and party leaders to review the voters' list in each of the blocks.
At least four members of the committee will be available at Trinamool Bhavan to listen to the party workers from the blocks and districts in electoral roll related problems and will rectify the discrepancies.
"The future of the MPs also depends on this (voters list revision). I don't trust the BJP. Under one nation, one election, they can hold Assembly and Lok Sabha polls together.
The MPs will also have to work on cleansing the list," she added, directing the party functionaries at the block level to scrutinise the electoral rolls which will start from Friday and need to be completed within 10 days.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.