‘Fake voters’: TMC core committee sets strict guidelines for district leaders

Kolkata: The core committee formed by Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee to review electoral rolls in all the districts held its first meeting on Thursday and issued a set of directives to the district leaders on how to carry out verification of voter lists by personally visiting every household.

The survey report has to be submitted to the core committee by the district leaders every 15 days.

TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee will hold a virtual conference with district presidents and representatives from the party’s frontal organisations on March 15 to outline a strategy on how to carry out scrutiny in an effective manner in all the districts.

To oversee the electoral roll review at the district level, Abhishek Banerjee and TMC state president Subrata Bakshi have directed the formation of core committees in each district. These district-level committees must submit their lists to the party high command by March 14.

The committee, along with district presidents, held a meeting at Trinamool Bhawan to devise a strategy for the review process.

The Chief Minister has instructed the core committee to submit a detailed report within ten days.

The core committee has also made it clear at Thursday’s meeting that no “lackadaisical” attitude will be tolerated while carrying out verifications of the electoral rolls in the districts.

In Thursday’s meeting, a district-wise core committee was formed and each will have at least 11 members. To verify the electoral rolls the district core committee will find out the fake voters on the basis of the recommendations by the main core committee set up by Mamata Banerjee.

TMC’s top brass has issued specific guidelines to district leaders to ensure thorough scrutiny, including monitoring online additions. A special vigilance will be maintained on names added via online methods. For tracking duplicate EPIC numbers, a special list will be created for instances where the same number appears on multiple EPIC cards. The core committee also laid stress on identifying non-resident voters. A separate list will be compiled of individuals who are not Bengal voters but have somehow been included in the roll. Extra attention will be given to names that have been removed without justification. The core committee members have been given special assignments in this regard. For example, senior party leader Manas Bhunia has been given the responsibility of voter card verification in East Midnapore, West Midnapore and Jhargram. Mosaraf Hossain has been asked to take care of verification works in Howrah and Hooghly besides his own district North Dinajpur.

Abhishek Banerjee will hold a virtual conference (VC) with district presidents on 15 March to outline the TMC’s stance on the issue, as raised by the party supremo Mamata Banerjee. Abhishek during the virtual meeting may chart the roadmap for the TMC’s election strategy. The TMC has made it clear that it will engage with the Election Commission multiple times over this issue. A TMC delegation, on Thursday, visited the Election Commission, demanding the introduction of a unique identity number for voters and urging the EC to take action on the issue.

The delegation team of Firhad Hakim, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Aroop Biswas have placed their demands before the commission. During a press conference after the meeting the leaders said it was an attempt to awaken the commission which is “asleep”.

The party has initiated a door-to-door review of the electoral roll, with leaders personally scrutinising the lists in their respective areas. Party leaders across districts have been directed to remain on high alert and actively monitor discrepancies.