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Kolkata Mayor and Minister of Urban Development & Municipal Affairs Firhad Hakim checks a voter name in the voter list, at Chetla Agrani area in Kolkata on March 1, 2025
| Photo Credit: ANI
Doubling down on their allegations of inclusion of fake voters in the electoral rolls in West Bengal, several Trinamool Congress leaders began a door-to-door campaign on Saturday (March 1, 2025) to scrutinize the rolls across the State.
Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Minister Firhad Hakim and North Bengal Development Minister Udayan Guha scrutinized the rolls in many areas in their respective constituencies. Mr. Hakim, who is also the Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, went around ward 82 of the civic body scrutinizing the rolls. The ward comes under Bhawanipore Assembly constituency represented by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Also read | West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer refutes Mamata’s ‘election manipulation’ remarks
“We have to list the number of fake voters and the number of dead voters separately. After scrutinizing the list, we will specify in each booth the assembly number, part number, and booth number of those who were found and those who were not found. Accordingly, if the party finds unreasonably high number of fake voters, it will be reported to the Election Commission,” Mr. Hakim said.
At a meeting on Thursday, the Chief Minister directed the party leadership to ensure that there are no fake voters in the electoral rolls. Ms. Banerjee alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership with the blessings of Election Commission of India (ECI) included fake voters in the electoral rolls. After the meeting on Thursday, she summoned councillors from Bhawanipore, including the Mayor, and directed them to look for fake voters.
On Friday, the BJP leadership, led by Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, approached the office of Chief Electoral Officer and lodged a complaint against the Chief Minister for targeting the Chief Election Commissioner. Mr. Adhikari also sent a letter to the newly appointed CEC alleging that the Chief Minister had crossed all boundaries in attacking the constitutional functionary.
Meanwhile, the CEO, in a multitude of posts on microblogging site X late on Friday night stated that any claims or objections related to the voters list are to be made first before the concerned 80,633 Booth Level Officers, 3,049 Assistant Electoral Returning Officers and 294 Electoral Returning Officers in West Bengal.
“As per RP Act 1950, Registration of Electors Rules 1960 and Manual on Electoral Rolls (https://tinyurl.com/3h3ftkh7), concerned BLOs, AEROs, EROs, DEOs and CEOs in any State/UT work for the updation of Electoral Rolls. This is done with active participation of Booth Level Agents appointed by political parties,” the CEO posted on X.
Minister Udayan Guha took up the door-to-door verification of voters list in ward 15 of Dinhata Municipality. Mr. Guha said that the campaign will continue till the State Assembly pollsto ensure that there are no discrepancies in the voters list.
The Chief Minister has set up a committee comprising several senior leaders of the party to scrutinize the voters list, and four of them have to meet every day at the party office to scrutinize the list.
With almost a year left for the Assembly polls in West Bengal, both the ruling Trinamool Congress and Opposition BJP are engaged in a war of words over the alleged inclusion of fake voters in the State‘s electoral rolls.
The Trinamool leadership has claimed that voters from other states are included in the electoral rolls of the State, and Ms. Banerjee on Thursday highlighted certain instances in which EPIC cards of voters from the State were linked to residents of other States. The BJP leadership on the other hand has claimed that Bangladeshi nationals have made it into the voters list of the State.
Published – March 01, 2025 09:42 pm IST
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IThe Hindu
