Baby Chakraborty, KalimNews, March 3, 2025, Kolkata : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has launched a vigorous campaign to combat what she termed as “ghost voters” ahead of the 2026 assembly elections. The initiative was prompted by Banerjee’s recent allegations that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is manipulating voter lists with the help of the Election Commission of India (ECI), particularly in districts across the state. Banerjee accused the BJP of enrolling non-local individuals as voters by exploiting data entry operators working for the ECI. The Chief Minister claimed that agencies such as the “Association of Brilliant Minds” and “India 360” were involved in these manipulations.
On Thursday, Banerjee directed the party to begin a thorough, state-wide house-to-house survey to identify and remove “fake voters” from the rolls. In Hooghly, Kolkata Mayor and state Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim was seen personally going door-to-door with Trinamool workers in the Chetla area, examining voter lists. Hakim emphasized the need to verify every voter, pointing out that the process would take two weeks, with a final list of real voters, fake voters, deceased voters, and those who had left the locality yet remained on the list to be submitted to the Election Commission.
In Barasat, former minister Jyotipriya Mallick led a meeting to address similar concerns about fake voters, and party workers there are also set to visit households, closely scrutinizing voter details. In Cooch Behar, Trinamool District President Abhijit De Bhowmik sparked controversy when he claimed that a voter from Uttar Pradesh was fraudulently listed under a Bengali voter’s EPIC number. He shared documents online to support his claim, which was immediately disputed by BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, who dismissed the allegations as false.
The drive also saw participation from other Trinamool leaders across the state. North Bengal Development Minister Udayan Guha joined local councillors in Dinhata to ensure voter list accuracy, while Swapan Kumar Nandi, the chairperson of the Arambagh municipality board, conducted similar checks in his constituency.
These actions come after Banerjee accused the BJP of attempting to manipulate electoral rolls in a manner similar to their alleged practices in Delhi and Maharashtra, where, she claimed, fake voters from other states were registered to influence the outcome of elections. Banerjee had earlier alleged that up to 30,000 fake voters were being registered in every assembly seat across the state, a claim that was sharply refuted by the BJP, which accused the TMC government of enrolling infiltrators from Bangladesh and Myanmar.
The West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer, however, dismissed these allegations, asserting that the electoral rolls were updated according to the legal protocols under the Representation of the People Act 1950. The CEO clarified that the process involved multiple layers of checks, including participation from Booth Level Agents (BLAs) appointed by political parties, and any claims or objections should be raised before the relevant electoral officers.
Amidst the ongoing political rhetoric and accusations, Banerjee has also announced the formation of a high-level committee, including senior Trinamool leaders such as Subrata Bakshi, Derek O’Brien, Abhishek Banerjee, and Firhad Hakim, to oversee the voter list verification process. As the 2026 assembly elections approach, these developments signal an intensifying political battle over voter integrity in West Bengal.