Vote manipulation is happening in electoral rolls, not in EVMs, says Abhishek

MP, 1 Jan 2025, Kolkata/Delhi: Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who led his party’s delegation to the Election Commission of India (ECI) in Delhi on Wednesday, raised 10 issues before the poll body, including the deletion of 58 lakh names from the draft rolls, the summoning of over 1.36 crore voters for SIR hearings, issues like mismatch of father’s name, questionable age gaps between parents and children, and more. He launched a scathing attack on Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, alleging that “vote chori” (vote theft) is happening in electoral rolls, not in EVMs.

Banerjee was speaking at a press briefing outside the ECI office in Delhi after submitting a 10-point memorandum to the ECI. “Do you think it is a coincidence that the Cooperative Secretary was made the Chief Election Commissioner? He was sent on a mission to destroy the Constitution and this institution. This is not a coincidence. He thinks that whatever was told to him, we would just listen silently,” Banerjee thundered on the CEC.

Alleging that the CEC is acting at the behest of his “political master” BJP, Banerjee further stated: “The people of Bengal are built differently. Let the BJP use whatever agencies they have at their disposal. They have fallen flat on their faces in 2012, 2021, 2024, and it will happen again in 2026. We will bow before the power of the people, not the people in power.”

Banerjee also alleged that instructions were being given through WhatsApp and no circulars were being issued, only to dodge the political parties from moving courts. “Instructions are being given on WhatsApp. Governments function through circulars and notifications, not through WhatsApp directives. Does the Union government and the ECI want to run the country through WhatsApp without issuing any circulars or notifications? What is stopping them from issuing circulars?” he asked.

He also raised questions about why BLA2 representatives cannot be part of the hearing process. “What is the ECI trying to hide? Why is the ECI not making the discrepancy list public? How can you clean a list by hiding details?” Banerjee asked. “I appeal to all, the vote chori is happening in the voters’ list, not through EVMs. You don’t know what algorithm, software they are using to disenfranchise people. They are trying to weaponise the electoral roll,” he added.

“Parties like Congress, AAP could not catch this in states like Maharashtra, Delhi, and Haryana,” added Banerjee. Stressing that the opposition’s fight is required not on media or social media but on the ground, Banerjee urged, “My suggestion to every political party is to go to the ground. That is how elections are won, not on social media or media channels, and to catch the corruption happening in the voter list. Since SIR started, the fight has begun. The fight is on the ground.”

“Everyone wanted to teach the BJP a lesson, but what happened? The BJP added 40 lakh voters in Maharashtra over a period of four months. In Delhi, in Arvind Kejriwal’s own constituency, the BJP added 20,000 voters over a period of ten months. In Maharashtra, 8–10 lakh voters were added every month. What happened in five years, BJP did it in four months. But they could not catch it,” Banerjee claimed.

“There were 7.66 crore voters on Bengal’s voter list, out of which 58 lakhs were removed, so around 7.08 crore remain. The exercise involved 80,000 BLOs, 8,000 BLO supervisors, 3,000 AEROs, 300 EROs, 23 DEOs, and the entire machinery, and it took two months. What magic wand does the ECI have that it sanitised the entire list in one hour and could declare that 1.36 crore people have discrepancies?” Banerjee asked, adding, “Both lists were released on the same day. How is this possible? This shows how scared you are. You don’t want people to vote. This is the BJP’s New India.”

Banerjee also said the concerns were not addressed and alleged that the CEC was “aggressive” during the meeting. “When we started speaking, he began losing his temper. He tried to stop some of us and pointed fingers at me. I then stated that you are a nominated official, but I am an elected representative. You are answerable to your masters, but I am answerable to the masses who elected me, for whom we have come here to ensure that no legitimate voter is deleted from the list,” he stated.

Threatening to launch a legal fight, Banerjee said: “If it has discrepancies, why would we accept it? We would fight it legally.” He claimed there was a “conspiracy to malign” Bengal by raising the “bogey of infiltration” and challenged the poll panel to come out with the list of Bangladeshis and Rohingyas among the 58 lakh voters whose names have been deleted in the draft electoral roll. He also questioned the EC’s move to retroactively introduce a new category termed “logical discrepancies,” summoning 1.36 crore voters for hearings on different grounds, including issues like mismatch of father’s name, questionable age gap between parents and children, among others.

More than 58 lakh voters were deleted from the draft rolls published on 16 December 2024, after the initial phase of SIR in the state. Out of the 7.6 crore total voters, the EC has also raised speculation regarding the “genuineness” of about 1.36 crore voters, who have been called for hearings to verify their documents again. Banerjee said they have urged the Commission that senior citizens, people with disabilities, and those with comorbidities should not be called for the hearing and should be provided a hearing at home.

Appealing to all like-minded parties to pay attention to the voter list, he said: “People are watching. If you put up a fight, the BJP won’t win, because it will be the people who decide.” The ten-member delegation of Trinamool also included its leader in Rajya Sabha, Derek O’Brien, MPs Saket Gokhale, Ritabrata Banerjee, and Mamatabala Thakur, and ministers from Bengal, including Manas Bhunia, Pradip Mazumdar, and Chandrima Bhattacharya.

“On the previous occasion, despite no clear response from the ECI, selective journalists were informed that all questions had been answered. That same night, our party stated on X that it possessed digital evidence showing that none of the questions had actually been addressed,” he said, adding: “In this meeting, apart from 2–3 points, there was no clarity on most of the 10–11 questions raised. Queries on the SIR were repeatedly diverted to citizenship issues, while questions on deletions were met with procedural responses such as filling Form 7, without any concrete explanation.”

He also pointed out that the delegation highlighted logical discrepancies affecting approximately 1.36 crore voters, which could be divided into some sub-categories like unreasonable age gaps between parents and children, discrepancies with grandparents’ ages, name and surname mismatches, and address-related issues. Despite this, the detailed discrepancy list has not been made public.

“It was revealed to me last night that logins for AEROs now show some discrepancy cases uploaded part-wise, but the app itself has several flaws. As soon as one opens a case related to logical discrepancies, four dropdown options appear: ‘send to DEO,’ ‘generate hearing notices,’ ‘found OK,’ and ‘found ineligible.’ However, even after documents are submitted and the case is marked as ‘OK’ by selecting ‘found OK,’ hearing notices are still being generated. No clear explanation was given for this,” he added.

“The issue of senior citizens was raised, particularly the harassment faced by elderly voters and those with medical conditions who are being summoned to hearing centres, made to climb stairs, and forced to wait for several hours,” Banerjee maintained.

On allegations of illegal immigrants, the delegation asked the ECI to clarify how many of the 58 lakh names missing from the draft list were Rohingya or Bangladeshi nationals. No credible data was provided, he claimed.

He further stated: “We also questioned the selective deployment of micro-observers in West Bengal. Bengal has the lowest deletion percentage at 5.79 per cent. In comparison, Tamil Nadu has a deletion rate of 12.57 per cent, Chhattisgarh 8.76 per cent, Gujarat around 9.95 per cent, and Kerala 6.65 per cent. Despite this, micro-observers and district observers are being selectively deployed only in West Bengal. When questioned, the ECI responded that there is a shortage of officers.”

“I countered this by pointing out that even during hearings, 10 AEROs have been kept idle, indicating that the full strength is not being utilised. This suggests that they do not have accurate information and are not fully aware of the ground situation. It also indicates that the CEC is not directly involved in how the SIR is being implemented in Bengal,” he said.

“Concerns were raised about the feasibility of verifying thousands of documents within five days, as mandated for DEOs, especially