TMC alleges voter list ‘silent rigging’, blames BJP and EC ahead of SIR exercise

The political temperature in West Bengal rose sharply on Thursday, 30 October, as the Trinamool Congress (TMC) launched a blistering attack on the Election Commission (EC) and the BJP, alleging a “pre-planned conspiracy” to tamper with the state’s electoral rolls ahead of the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise.

At a fiery press conference in Kolkata, TMC spokesperson and state general secretary Kunal Ghosh accused the BJP of engineering what he termed a “silent rigging” operation — a systematic deletion of thousands of genuine voters’ names from the list.

“We have found massive discrepancies between the 2002 voter list and the new rolls uploaded on the Commission’s website. This isn’t an error — it’s a conspiracy,” thundered Ghosh.

Brandishing documents to support his claim, Ghosh alleged that the manipulation was being conducted “in connivance” with sections of the Election Commission, and “orchestrated directly from BJP offices.”

“In one area, the 2002 list showed 717 voters — now only 140 remain. Did they all die together?” he asked sardonically, drawing gasps from reporters. “Across several booths, hundreds of names have vanished without explanation.”

According to the TMC, the alleged irregularities span multiple districts. In Ashoknagar Assembly constituency’s Guma-1 Gram Panchayat under Habra-2 block, for instance, booth number 159 — which had around 900 voters in 2002 — now shows zero registered voters on the EC’s portal. Similar anomalies, the party claimed, were detected in Cooch Behar, where several booths now appear to have between 400 and 900 missing voters.

“This is not an accident; it is a carefully crafted political scheme,” Ghosh said. “The BJP knows in advance which names will be deleted — how is that possible without inside help?”

The ruling party said it had filed a formal complaint with the Election Commission, demanding a comprehensive investigation into what it called “a dangerous attempt to subvert democracy through digital manipulation.”

“We will not allow even a single legitimate voter’s name to be erased,” Ghosh vowed, adding that TMC workers were gathering booth-wise evidence to present to the EC.

Accompanying him, state minister Chandrima Bhattacharya noted that the alleged deletions had backfired, creating discontent even among BJP supporters.

“In many areas, their own voters have found their names missing. This has caused anger within the BJP’s own base,” she remarked.

The TMC’s explosive allegations come against a tense backdrop — reports from North Bengal districts have already hinted at panic and distress linked to the ongoing voter list verification. A few tragic incidents, including reported suicides, have further deepened the anxiety surrounding the SIR process.

As the battle for Bengal’s electoral rolls intensifies, the TMC’s charge of “silent rigging” has set the stage for a new political confrontation — one that could test the credibility of the Election Commission and reshape the contours of the state’s pre-election narrative.

With PTI inputs