Allegations of fake voters surface in Baruipur West Assembly seat

Kolkata: Allegations of several bogus voters making into the electoral roll has surfaced from Baruipur West Assembly Constituency in South 24-Parganas where Bengal legislative Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee is the elected MLA.

According to Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders, some 4,000 odd fake voters exist in the 10 Panchayat and Baruipur municipality area within the Assembly Constituency. TMC has started a booth-wise scrutiny on the list.

The alleged irregularities in the voter list at Baruipur West comes close at the heels of similar allegations from Champahati Panchayat area.

It has been alleged that the names of several voters have been excluded from the electoral roll of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls while names of a good number of voters who have already passed away still exist in the voters list. The Panchayat members and other party leaders were conducting door-to-door surveys of the voter list when they came across such alleged irregularities. The voter list reads a number of names as ‘deleted’ although they have claimed to have cast their franchise in the parliamentary polls last year. Speaker Banerjee and Jadavpur Lok Sabha MP Saayoni Ghosh have submitted a deputation in this regard before BDO and SDO of Baruipur. “Some names of outsiders have been included in the voter list.

These persons do not exist either in Panchayat or in municipality areas under my Constituency. The genuine voters are being deprived,” Banerjee said.

“The district officials involved in the preparation of the voter list cannot wash off their hands in the entire process,” said a senior TMC leader of the area who refused to be named.

Chief secretary Manoj Pant has recently directed all district magistrates to be more vigilant and alert in respect of preparation of voter list.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the state Assembly had alleged that a “ghost political party” is trying to register at least 20,000 – 30,000 fake voters in every Assembly seat across the state ahead of the 2026 state polls.