TMC leaders begin house-to-house survey to identify fake voters in Bengal

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders in West Bengal began a “state-wide house-to-house survey” from Saturday to identify “fake voters” ahead of the 2026 assembly elections in the state.

This follows chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s allegation that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is manipulating voters’ lists in the districts with help from Election Commission of India (ECI) before the 2026 assembly polls.

Banerjee said, “An agency has done the manipulations online. It is called Association of Brilliant Minds and there is another agency called India 360. Their people have contacted data entry operators who work for ECI. They have enrolled people from other states against the voter card details of local residents.”

BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari the following day had hit back saying, the TMC government has enrolled infiltrators from Bangladesh and Myanmar as voters.

Also Read: BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari accuses TMC govt of manipulating voters’ list in WB

On Thursday, apart from directing a voter list clean-up drive, Banerjee also announced the formation of a new committee comprising senior leaders such as Subrata Bakshi, Derek O’Brien, Abhishek Banerjee, and Firhad Hakim to oversee the voter list verification process.

Hakim, the mayor of Kolkata and state urban development minister, was seen going door-to-door in his municipal ward in Kolkata’s Chetla area on Saturday morning. “Booth-level TMC workers like us have started visiting house-to-house. The voter list is being scrutinised, and every single voter is being identified. Within two weeks, party leaders will prepare a list of real voters, fake voters, deceased voters, and voters who have left the locality but whose names haven’t been removed yet,” he said.

Udayan Guha, the north Bengal development minister, also took to the streets in his assembly constituency of Dinhata in Cooch Behar district. He was seen visiting house-to-house in a municipal ward in Dinhata, along with the local ward councillor.

“On the directions of the party supremo, all TMC leaders have started visiting every house in his or her locality. We are checking each name on the voter list, and new names are being thoroughly verified,” Guha said.

Also Read: Fake voter registration attempts in WB ahead of 2026 polls: Mamata Banerjee

In Arambagh, Hooghly, Swapan Kumar Nandi, chairperson of the board of administrators at Arambagh municipality, was also seen visiting a locality with TMC workers, holding a voter list.

Earlier in February, Banerjee had alleged that attempts were being made to register at least 20,000 – 30,000 fake voters in every assembly seat across the state ahead of the 2026 assembly polls.

“In Delhi and Maharashtra, the BJP won elections by enrolling fake voters from Haryana and Gujarat. The party will try to bring these fake voters from Haryana and Gujarat to win elections in Bengal, as the BJP knows it can never win Bengal elections if they are held in a free and fair manner,” she said, referring to Congress lawmaker Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of discrepancies in the 2024 Maharashtra assembly election and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal’s claim that the BJP manipulated Delhi’s electoral rolls by registering “fake” voters from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

West Bengal’s chief electoral officer (CEO), however, dismissed Banerjee’s allegations, saying that the electoral roll was updated following protocols. “As per the Representation of the People (RP) Act 1950, Registration of Electors Rules 1960 and Manual on Electoral Rolls, concerned BLOs, AEROs, EROs, DEOs, and CEOs in any State/UT work for the updation of Electoral Rolls,” read a statement issued by him on Friday.

Also read: ‘39 lakh voters in 5 months’: Rahul Gandhi vs Devendra Fadnavis over Maharashtra polls ‘anomaly’

“This is done with active participation of Booth Level Agents appointed by political parties. Any specific claim or objections are to be made first before the concerned 80,633 BLOs, 3,049 AEROs and 294 EROs in West Bengal,” the statement added.

“Banerjee made baseless allegations and insulted Gyanesh Kumar, the new Chief Election Commissioner. I wrote to him today, urging action against her. We also sent a separate letter to Nirvachan Sadan, Delhi saying there are more than 73,00,000 fake voters in Bengal,” Adhikari said on Friday after meeting officials at the EC’s Kolkata office.