Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari. File
| Photo Credit: ANI
Leader of Opposition of West Bengal Assembly and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday (November 29, 2025) accused the Mamata Banerjee government of ‘tainting’ the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the State’s electoral rolls by allegedly influencing booth-level officers (BLOs) to add or retain names of ineligible voters during the ongoing enumeration phase.
“So far [to] my knowledge, 1 crore 20 lakh [enumeration forms] have not been digitised, and of the forms that have been digitised, around 27.5 lakh names have been dropped. But this figure is too low. The names of many dead voters and illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators are being retained under the leadership of the tainted, corrupt Chief Secretary Manoj Pant,” Mr. Adhikari said.
The BJP MLA from Nandigram also said that the party has the power of ‘Forms 6, 7, and 8’ to ensure ineligible voters are struck off during SIR, after the draft electoral roll is published on December 9. Forms 6, 7, and 8 refer to application forms for the inclusion of new voters, raising objections or proposals to delete names, and for change in an electors’ details.
“At block offices, block-level government officials are forcing BLOs to add names of dead voters, fake voters, and Bangladeshi infiltrators,” Mr. Adhikari alleged, citing that as the reason why ‘only’ 27.5 lakh enumeration forms have been rendered uncollectable on grounds of an electors’ untraceability or ineligibility.
Earlier, the LoP had claimed that over a crore ‘fake’ voters would be dropped from the list by the end of the SIR process in the State.
Mr. Adhikari on Saturday (November 29) also welcomed the appointment of retired IAS officer Subrata Gupta as Special Roll Observer and a delegation of 12 West Bengal cadre IAS officers as election roll observers by the Election Commission of India. According to ECI’s notices, they have been tasked to oversee the preparation of the revised electoral roll across all districts of West Bengal and “to ensure that no eligible person is left out from enrolment and that no ineligible elector is included in the elector roll”.
The 12 election roll observers, along with special roll observer Mr. Gupta met with West Bengal’s Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal and other election officials on Saturday (November 29).
“This move is most welcome. The officers appointed to this task were not allowed to work in West Bengal by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee… the team given by Election Commission is very efficient, I suggest they visit block offices immediately,” the LoP said.
He further said that these officers as well as BJP’s booth-level agents will ‘fight to clean up’ the voters’ list.
‘ECI is a puppet of the BJP’
“The appointment of electoral roll observers was done within hours of State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya publicly stating that the Chief Election Commissioner should personally visit West Bengal to inspect SIR, and not monitor it from his air-conditioned office. This proves what we as the Opposition have been saying time and again, that the Election Commission is compromised and that it is a puppet of the BJP,” Trinamool Congress spokesperson Arup Chakraborty told The Hindu on Saturday (November 29).
He referred to the press conference by Mr. Bhattacharya on Friday (November 28) evening where he said that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar must come to West Bengal and see for himself under what situation the BLOs are working in the State. “It is not enough to send representatives here. The situation in West Bengal is different from other States,” the BJP State president had said.
Calling the LoP “a pathological liar”, Mr. Chakraborty also questioned whether Mr. Adhikari is surveilling the interactions of the State’s top bureaucrats.
Published – November 30, 2025 03:09 am IST