With eye on 2026 Assembly elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held a Triamool Congress (TMC) organisational meeting on Thursday (February 27, 2025), and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of enrolling fake voters from Haryana and Gujarat to influence the Assembly polls in Delhi and Maharashtra.
Addressing the meeting in Kolkata, the party supremo alleged that free and fair elections are impossible unless the Election Commission remains impartial.
“What BJP has done in Delhi Assembly polls cannot be repeated in Bengal. We will identify fake electors, who have been enrolled with help of BJP,” claimed Ms. Banerjee at TMC meeting.
Ms. Banerjee also questioned the appointment of Gyanesh Kumar as the Chief Election Commissioner, alleging that the BJP was “trying to influence” the constitutional body.
“How the BJP is manipulating voters’ list with the blessings of Election Commission is very much clear,” she claimed.
“If I can go for 26 days hunger strike (during the anti-land acquisition movement in 2006), then we can start a movement against the Election Commission too. If needed, we can go for dharna before the Election Commission’s office for an indefinite period to press for demand to correct voter rolls and remove fake electors,” she said.
She alleged that the BJP had used “similar tactics in Delhi and Maharashtra by enrolling voters from Haryana and Gujarat to manipulate elections”.
“In Delhi and Maharashtra, the BJP had won elections by enrolling fake voters from Haryana and Gujarat. The party will bring these fake voters from Haryana and Gujarat and try to win elections in Bengal as the BJP know that it can never win Bengal elections if polls are held in a free and fair manner,” she alleged.
The TMC supremo also accused the BJP of “ensuring enrolment of fake voters from other States in various districts of West Bengal with the help of the EC”, she said.
“We will identify fake voters who have been enrolled on the voter list with the help of the BJP. We will not allow outsiders (BJP) to capture Bengal,” the TMC supremo claimed.
Her remarks come amid heightened political tensions in the State, with both the ruling TMC and the Opposition BJP gearing up for a fierce electoral battle.
(With inputs from PTI)
