TMC accuses EC officials, BJP of conspiring to include names of outsiders in Bengal's voters' list

Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress on Saturday accused a section of Election Commission (EC) officials of conspiring with the BJP to add names of outsiders to the voter list in various assembly segments of West Bengal to benefit the saffron party. TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh told reporters that a section of EC officials are incorporating names without proper physical verification, particularly in the border areas of the state. He said stopping infiltration is the responsibility of the Border Security Force (BSF), and any reports of unauthorised outsiders being added to the voter list should be handled by the Centre, as it controls the BSF and "remote controls" the EC, which has relaxed the verification process.

Ghosh, who was referring to reports about the alleged rise in the number of electors in the voter list in the Champahati area under Baruipur assembly of South 24 Parganas district, said, "If that is the situation, the credit goes to the local administration and police for tracking the unauthorised voters and not the EC, which had allowed inclusion of the names without proper physical verification." "Instead of pointing fingers at the state and the ruling party, the BJP and those raising hue and cry over the issue should take up the issue of checking infiltration with the Centre," he added. He reminded that West Bengal chief minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had recently cautioned against the attempts by BJP in collusion with EC to induct bogus names in the electoral list to change the vote ratio in favour of the saffron party, as they had repeatedly failed to secure power in assembly polls. BJP Rajya Sabha MP and spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said, "TMC's gameplan to include ghost voters has been exposed as the ruling party leaders have been involved in providing fake Aadhaar and voter ID cards to win elections." "The vigilant EC and Union Home Ministry will not allow TMC to play the old game again," Bhattacharya said. He said, "The comments of TMC leadership are cries of desperation on the face of imminent defeat in the coming assembly polls."