‘Voter rolls being rigged, not EVMs’: Abhishek Banerjee alleges mass enrolment fraud ahead of West Bengal polls

Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee has launched a sharp attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), alleging what he calls ‘large-scale voter roll manipulation’ ahead of West Bengal elections. The TMC national general secretary claimed the ‘real rigging’ in Indian elections is happening not through Electronic Voting Machines but via electoral rolls.

In a strongly worded post on X, Banerjee said the BJP had ‘perfected the dirty art’ of voter list tampering, citing what he described as a ‘pattern’ seen earlier in Delhi and Maharashtra, and now allegedly unfolding in West Bengal.

Banerjee pointed out that Maharashtra added over 43 lakh voters in five years, followed by another 40 lakh in just five months. In Delhi, he claimed over 4 lakh voters were added in four years, with nearly the same number added again within seven months.

‘Bengal is now witnessing exactly that,” he said. West Bengal is voting in two phases – 23 and 29 April. Results will be announced on 4 April.

The West Bengal election is being seen as a fight between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The TMC, led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has been in power in West Bengal since 2011, for three consecutive terms.

With the X post, the TMC MP shared a video purportedly showing cartons filled with Form 6 applications—used for new voter registrations—being submitted in bulk at the Chief Electoral Officer’s office in Kolkata. He alleged that the forms were being stacked in large numbers, raising ‘serious concerns’ about attempts to enrol voters from states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh into Bengal’s electoral rolls.

Banerjee accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of failing to act, claiming that bulk submission of Form 6 violates the poll body’s rules, which cap individual submissions at 50 applications. “Thousands of forms being submitted by a handful of people is not just a violation, it strikes at the foundation of free and fair elections,” he said.

“We call ourselves the world’s largest democracy, yet the very custodian of our democratic rights is actively facilitating its sabotage. When BJP shouted “Paltano Dorkar”, they actually meant “VOTER ROLLS PALTANO DORKAR”. When they screamed “Poriborton”, they meant a DEMOGRAPHIC PORIBORTON, replacing Bengal’s own electorate with voters brought in from BJP-ruled states,” he said in the post.

Earlier, addressing a rally in Balurghat , Abhishek Banerjee sharpened his attack on the BJP and the Election Commission, alleging that the saffron party was trying to alter West Bengal's demography by bringing in voters from outside the state ahead of the 2026 assembly elections.

Addressing a public meeting at the Balurghat Town Club Ground in support of TMC candidate Arpita Ghosh, Banerjee claimed that voters from NDA-ruled Bihar and Uttar Pradesh were being brought into different parts of Bengal to prevent local people from exercising their franchise.

"There is a conspiracy to change Bengal's demography. Efforts are being made to ensure that the people of Bengal cannot exercise their democratic rights. Voters are being brought into different parts of Bengal from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh," he alleged.

Banerjee said he had already lodged a complaint with the Election Commission over the issue.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also accused the BJP of trying to include illegal voters from NDA-ruled Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh in West Bengal's electoral roll to turn the poll outcome in favour of the saffron party.

She made the allegations at multiple election rallies in Paschim Medinipur district and in adjacent Bankura on Tuesday, even as she sent another letter to Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, on the matter.

In the letter, she claimed the Form 6 applications of "not genuine residents of Bengal having no legitimate connection to the state", are "illegal, unconstitutional and fundamentally undemocratic, reflecting mala fide intent and ill motive".

Election Commission responds

Amid these serious allegations by TMC, West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal on Tuesday clarified that his office has no software to add or delete names of any voter.

Form 6 is used to include new voters in the electoral rolls or to shift a voter from one constituency to another.

"I want to say that this is a government office, there is a receiving section, and anyone can submit as many documents as he or she wants,” Agarwal was quoted as saying by news agencies. "There could be one lakh documents or one document submitted in a day by one person. I do not have information as the head of the office about this. There is a rule," he said.

"I do not require to know who is submitting what. The documents are segregated, and then, if required, those are sent to me. I have come to know that some Form 6s have been received by us," the CEO told reporters.

"There is no such software in the CEO's office through which names can be added or deleted. If allegations arise against someone of being a fake voter, officials concerned carry out verification under the prescribed procedure, and the report is then submitted to the Election Commission," he said.

BJP delegation meets EC

On March 30, a delegation of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including Union Ministers, sought the intervention of the Election Commission of India over West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress workers allegedly trying to hijack the election process and threatening voters in poll bound state

“CM Mamata Banerjee, TMC workers hijacking election process; threatening voters in Bengal," Rijiju said after submitting the petition.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, along with his cabinet colleagues Piyush Goyal and Sukanta Majumdar, and other BJP leaders, submitted a petition to the Election Commission, urging it to ensure free and fair polls.

What happened in 2021 assembly elections?

The 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly elections were held in eight phases between 27 March and 29 April to elect all 294 members of the Legislative Assembly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The incumbent Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee won the election by a landslide, despite opinion polls generally predicting a close race against the BJP, which became the official opposition with 77 seats.

For the first time in the history of Bengal, no members from the Congress and the Communist Party were elected.

(With agency inputs)