Abhishek to review progress on ‘identifying ghost voters’ drive’ during March 16 meet

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee will take stock of the progress in identification of fake voters in the electoral lists across the state at a virtual meeting on March 16. Earlier March 15 was declared as the date for the meeting by Banerjee. All members of the state committee, district presidents and heads of different organisations of the party have been asked to be present in the meeting. The progress report from different levels will be collected and placed before TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee. Mamata Banerjee addressing TMC’s elected representatives, leaders and functionaries at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata on February 27 had accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of manipulating the voter list by enrolling “fake voters” from other states in the electoral rolls with the “blessings” of the EC ahead of the Assembly elections early next year.

She had announced a state-level committee headed by state president Subrata Bakshi to listen to the party workers from the blocks and districts in electoral roll related problems and rectify the discrepancies. The committee held its first meeting on Thursday but Abhishek Banerjee who is a member of that committee could not attend because of some other preoccupations. Meanwhile, the Election Commission of India on Friday issued a statement declaring that the issue of duplication of voter ID card numbers will be resolved in the next three months. “The Commission has now decided to resolve this long pending issue after detailed discussions within the technical teams and concerned CEOs in the next three months by ensuring a unique national EPIC number to the existing electors having a duplicate EPIC number and for future electors as well,” read the statement by the poll panel.