Suvendu Adhikari accuses State’s Chief Secretary of ‘influencing’ SIR, welcomes appointment of ‘electoral roll observers’

Chief of Opposition West Bengal Meeting and Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) chief Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday (November 29, 2025) accused the Mamata Banerjee authorities of ‘tainting’ the Particular Intensive Revision (SIR) of the State’s electoral rolls by allegedly influencing booth-level officers (BLOs) so as to add or retain names of ineligible voters throughout the ongoing enumeration part.

“To date (to) my information, 1 crore 20 lakh (enumeration types) haven’t been digitized, and of the types which were digitized, round 27.5 lakh names have been dropped. However this determine is simply too low. The names of many lifeless voters and unlawful Bangladeshi infiltrators are being retained underneath the management of the contaminated, corrupt Chief Secretary Manoj Pant,” Mr. Official stated.

The BJP MLA from Nandigram additionally stated that the celebration has the ability of ‘Varieties 6, 7, and eight’ to make sure ineligible voters are struck off throughout SIR, after the draft electoral roll is printed on December 9. Varieties 6, 7, and eight seek advice from software types for the inclusion of recent voters, elevating objections or proposals to delete names, and for change in an electors’ particulars.

“At block places of work, block-level authorities officers are forcing BLOs so as to add names of lifeless voters, faux voters, and Bangladeshi infiltrators,” Mr. Adhikari alleged, citing that as the rationale why ‘solely’ 27.5 lakh enumeration types have been rendered uncollectable on grounds of an electors’ untraceability or ineligibility.

Earlier, the LoP had claimed that over a crore ‘faux’ voters could be dropped from the record by the tip of the SIR course of within the State.

Mr. Adhikari on Saturday (November 29) additionally welcomed the appointment of retired IAS officer Subrata Gupta as Particular Roll Observer and a delegation of 12 West Bengal cadre IAS officers as election roll observers by the Election Fee of India. In accordance with ECI’s notices, they’ve been tasked to supervise the preparation of the revised electoral roll throughout all districts of West Bengal and “to make sure that no eligible individual is omitted from enrollment and that no ineligible elector is included within the elector roll”.

The 12 election roll observers, together with particular roll observer Mr. Gupta met with West Bengal’s Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal and different election officers on Saturday (November 29).

“This transfer is most welcome. The officers appointed to this job weren’t allowed to work in West Bengal by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee… the staff given by Election Fee could be very environment friendly, I counsel they go to block places of work instantly,” the LoP stated.

He additional stated that these officers in addition to BJP’s booth-level brokers will ‘battle to scrub up’ the voters’ record.

‘ECI is a puppet of the BJP’

“The appointment of electoral roll observers was finished inside hours of State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya publicly stating that the Chief Election Commissioner ought to personally go to West Bengal to examine SIR, and never monitor it from his air-conditioned workplace. This proves what we because the Opposition have been saying again and again, that the Election Fee is compromised and that it’s a puppet of the BJP,” Trinamool Congress spokesperson Arup Chakraborty instructed. The Hindu on Saturday (November 29).

He referred to the press convention by Mr. Bhattacharya on Friday (November 28) night the place he stated that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar should come to West Bengal and see for himself underneath what state of affairs the BLOs are working within the State. “It isn’t sufficient to ship representatives right here. The state of affairs in West Bengal is completely different from different States,” the BJP State president had stated.

Calling the LoP “a pathological liar”, Mr. Chakraborty additionally questioned whether or not Mr. Adhikari is surveilling the interactions of the State’s high bureaucrats.