SILIGURI/COOCH BEHAR (WB), Nov 29: Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, on Saturday alleged that the state administration was involved in manipulating the electoral rolls during the ongoing SIR, and that senior officials were personally intervening to retain ineligible names in the voter list.
He said the Election Commission (EC) should have acted “a little more swiftly” during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Speaking to reporters in Siliguri in north Bengal, Adhikari said, “The EC depends on the state machinery, which is indulged in fraud.”
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“The state machinery is trying to include the names of Bangladeshi infiltrators in the voter list,” he alleged.
Adhikari claimed that senior officials were making direct calls to district-level authorities, including the district election officers, electoral registration officers and assistant electoral registration officers, to ensure certain names remain on the voter rolls “in a wrong manner”.
“These allegedly included dead voters, duplicate voters, fake voters and Bangladeshi infiltrators,” he said.
However, the BJP leader welcomed the EC’s intervention on Friday, after it appointed observers directly in the state and across all zones.
Retired IAS officer Subrata Gupta has been named the Special Roll Observer for the SIR exercise in West Bengal, an official said.
The EC has also appointed 12 IAS officers as ‘Electoral Roll Observers’ to oversee key aspects of electoral roll preparation following the SIR and assist district election officers (DEOs) and electoral registration officers (EROs) in taking corrective measures, he said.
Adhikari further said that the BJP has deployed the highest number of booth level agents (BLAs) in the state during the ongoing revision exercise.
Earlier in the day, he visited the home of Indian cricketer Richa Ghosh in Siliguri and felicitated the sportsperson for her outstanding performance in the ICC Women’s World Cup, 2025.
He praised the young wicketkeeper-batter for her batting in the semifinal and final, calling her a “true daughter of West Bengal” who has achieved the rare feat of winning the ICC Women’s U-19 World Cup, the Women’s Premier League and the senior ICC Women’s World Cup at a young age.
Meanwhile, high drama followed after police objected to setting up a podium obstructing vehicular traffic on a highway at Changrabandha in Cooch Behar district for a rally scheduled to be addressed by Adhikari, leading to protests by BJP activists.
A march, part of the BJP’s state-wide ‘Parivartan Yatra’ in the run-up to the 2026 assembly polls, was taken out covering a distance of 2 km.
Adhikari told reporters that the public meeting took place, adhering to all the guidelines and directives of the Calcutta High Court, keeping the highway free for traffic movement.
“Wait for four-five months. Mamata Banerjee is going to be an ex-CM. This undemocratic, intimidating, communal Trinamool Congress regime will be thrown out peacefully by people’s mandate,” he said.
“Hindus are uniting against the TMC, which is appeasing ‘Jihadi’ forces in border areas and the yatra will take a ‘sankalp’ (pledge) to usher in a change and install a double-engine government,” he said.
A senior police officer said the podium was obstructing traffic movement in violation of the high court order, which specified the number of participants and the area taken for setting up the stage.
As police denied permission to erect the stage, a row erupted as the BJP activists alleged that the law enforcers were acting in a partisan manner to suit the interests of TMC.
Meanwhile, Union minister and former BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar took out a rally from Nimta to Birati Mahajati Nagar as part of ‘Parivartan Yatra’ in the northern suburbs of Kolkata.
Thousands participated in the rally, as Majumdar slammed the TMC regime for alleged misgovernance in every sphere and accused it of indulging in “appeasement” politics. (PTI)
