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KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee instructed party leaders on Friday to ensure that Booth Level Agents (BLAs) always accompany Booth Level Officers (BLOs) during house-to-house visits in November.
Addressing a virtual meeting with 17,000 party functionaries on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the election roll by the Election Commission of India, Banerjee told party leaders to ensure that BLOs “should not be unaccompanied for even a minute when the house-to-house enumeration starts.
Banerjee, who has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of using SIR announced on October 27 to “silently rig” the upcoming elections, said the entire exercise was being carried out at the behest of the BJP to manipulate the voter list ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls.
“As you all know, the SIR was announced on October 27 in Bengal on the BJP’s instructions. After the voter rolls revision was announced in Bihar, we had said it stands for Silent Invisible Rigging. The TMC has protested in Parliament, in court, and on the streets, and we will continue to do so,” Banerjee said, according to a PTI report quoting TMC functionaries.
On Thursday, the TMC claimed that the names of hundreds of voters listed in the hard copy of the 2002 voter list were missing from the online version uploaded by the poll panel on its website.
“Even before SIR could start officially, allegations have started pouring in that the poll panel has started deleting names from the voters’ list. This is silent and invisible rigging. Several names have been dropped from the 2002 voters’ list published by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on its website. These names are there in the hard copy but are missing from the online version,” Kunal Ghosh, TMC leader, told the media on Thursday.
There were 717 voters at booth number 2 in Natabari in the hard copy of the voter list but only 140 voters in the online version uploaded on the ECI’s website. “In a booth in Mathabhanga there is no trace of around 400 voters. The online version states that there are no voters in a booth at Ashok Nagar in North 24 Parganas. Where did they go?” said Ghosh.
“In one Basirhat booth alone, the online list shows a blank stretch from S. No. 859–892. Names present in 2002 have simply vanished today. This reek of a deliberate, state-directed operation to erase voters. SIR, as @abhishekaitc pointed out, is being used as a cover for Silent Invisible Rigging,” the TMC wrote on X on Friday.
In response, the BJP said the TMC should move court if it has evidence to back up its allegations.
“This is a serious allegation. The TMC should move the court, instead of holding a press conference, if the party has any evidence to prove what they are alleging,” Sajal Ghosh, BJP leader, told media persons.
The West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has not responded to the TMC’s allegations.
On Friday, the Bengal CEO announced a new website on its X handle.
