BJP adding illegal voters in Bengal electoral rolls, alleges Mamata Banerjee

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of attempting to influence the upcoming assembly elections by including “illegal voters” from other states in West Bengal’s electoral rolls.

Addressing a rally in Chandrakona in Paschim Medinipur, the Trinamool Congress supremo alleged that voters from Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh were being added to the rolls to tilt the outcome in the BJP’s favour.

She claimed that party leader Abhishek Banerjee had rushed to the Election Commission office in Kolkata after reports that nearly 30,000 applications for new voters were submitted in a single day.

“The BJP is trying to include illegal voters from other states and transport them using railways, as was done in Bihar,” Banerjee alleged, accusing the party of showing “no respect” for Bengal and its people.

The chief minister also accused the BJP of colluding with the Election Commission of India to delete names of women and minority voters under the ongoing voter verification exercise. “They are snatching away citizenship, constitutional and democratic rights. We will fight this at every step,” she said.

Banerjee further warned that the BJP, if voted to power, could impose restrictions on the dietary habits of Bengalis and attempt to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state through indirect means.

Urging voters to back her party, she appealed to the public to see her as the candidate across all 294 assembly seats, as campaigning intensifies ahead of the polls.

With PTI inputs