‘Vote chori’ is taking place via electoral rolls and not EVMs, Trinamool delegation says

Launching a scathing attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Wednesday (December 31, 2025) claimed that “vote chori” (theft) was taking place via voter lists and not Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). It would contest the final SIR list legally if it had discrepancies, the party said.

Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee led the 10-member delegation that met the full Commission in a meeting that lasted nearly two-and-a-half hours. The party flagged the issue of 1.36 crore voters who had been marked for “logical discrepancies” and called for hearings, Mr. Banerjee said.

The TMC needed to ensure that no Booth-Level Officer (BLO), ERO (Electoral Registration Officer), and other polling officials were threatened during the ongoing SIR process, failing which it would take strict action, the ECI said.

The delegation had raised a host of questions, but apart from two-three points, there was no clarity on most of the 10-11 questions raised, he said. “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,” the Trinamool MP said.

“If it (the SIR) has discrepancies, why would we accept it? We would fight it legally,” Mr. Banerjee said, when asked if they would accept the final electoral roll for West Bengal after the SIR was completed.

One of the most important points highlighted by the delegation, he said, was “logical discrepancies” affecting approximately 1.36 crore voters, which could be divided into some sub-categories, including unreasonable age gaps between parents and children, discrepancies with grandparents’ ages, name and surname mismatches, and address-related issues.

No detailed discrepancy list had been made public, Mr. Banerjee said. Several such cases, where documents had been submitted and marked “found okay” had been sent hearing notices anyway, he said. The ECI told the delegation there might be technical flaws in the app, he added.

The TMC delegation also raised the matter of calling senior citizens for hearings, and asked why the order to ensure home hearings for those above 85 years was issued only recently. All senior citizens aged 60 years and above should be allowed home hearings, the party demanded. The EC, Mr. Banerjee said, indicated it would consider this.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar was trying to “weaponise” the electoral rolls, the Trinamool delegation claimed. The EC should clarify why many of the 58 lakh names missing from the draft list were Rohingya or Bangladeshi nationals as no credible data had been provided, the delegation stated. “While identifying and deporting illegal immigrants is justified, transparency regarding these numbers was demanded,” Mr. Banerjee said.

“We also questioned the selective deployment of micro-observers in West Bengal,” the Trinamool leader said, alleging an attempt to malign the image of Bengal.

The TMC delegation also flagged what it claimed was the appointment of a third party agency named Data Mission for conducting surveys in Bengal. On hearing this, the CEC had said that he was not aware of such an appointment, and had suggested that it had probably been done by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer without the CEC’s knowledge, Mr. Banerjee claimed.

Raising the plight of migrant workers who have been called for physical hearings, unlike in Bihar, the TMC delegation demanded that hearings be held virtually.

“This is vote theft. Vote theft does not happen through EVMs. No other political party was able to point this out in other States,” Mr. Banerjee said.

“I appeal to all like-minded parties, especially those in the Opposition — the theft is happening in the voter list, in the software, not in the EVM. You are failing to understand what algorithms and software are being run to disenfranchise and remove 50 lakh to one crore voters. And if this is not happening, then release the list of 1.36 crore logical discrepancies,” he said.

Meanwhile, the TMC was told to ensure its ground-level political representatives were not involved in threatening of any staff on election duty, sources in the EC told The Hindu, adding that the party had been warned of strict action against miscreants who tried to take the law into their own hands.