TMC begins voter list verification drive amid allegations of electoral roll manipulation by BJP

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress leaders on Saturday began a door-to-door campaign to scrutinise the electoral rolls amid allegations of voter list manipulation by the BJP ahead of next year’s assembly polls in West Bengal. Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim personally carried out the voter list verification drive in the Chetla area of south Kolkata. “The BJP is trying to manipulate the electoral rolls by bringing in fake voters from other states. So, along with our party workers, we are on a door-to-door visit to verify the voter list,” Hakim told reporters.

Local TMC leaders were also busy in a similar exercise in the Bhabanipur assembly constituency of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The verification drive is being carried out by party workers in other places as well, as instructed by Banerjee, also the TMC supremo. TMC claimed that several individuals from other states were found to have been registered under the same EPIC number of genuine voters of West Bengal. Banerjee has called them "ghost voters." Addressing TMC's state conference on Thursday, the party boss accused the BJP of tampering with the electoral rolls with the "support of the Election Commission" by adding fake voters from other states, a charge denied by the saffron party.

Banerjee alleged that the BJP had used similar tactics in previous elections in Delhi and Maharashtra. She warned that if necessary actions are not taken to correct the electoral rolls, her party would stage a dharna (sit-in protest) in front of the EC office. The Chief Electoral Office (CEO) of West Bengal, however, said that updation of the electoral rolls is conducted by officials with the active participation of Booth Level Agents (BLOs) appointed by political parties.