Kolkata
Bengal Polls 2026: Mamata Alleges ‘Votechori’ Plot; Claims 30,000 ‘Illegal’ Voter Forms Filed by BJP Outsiders in 24 Hours
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has leveled explosive allegations against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), accusing the saffron party of attempting a massive “demographic hijacking” of the state’s electoral rolls. Addressing a high-octane election rally in Chandrakona, Paschim Medinipur today, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo claimed that over 30,000 Form-6 applications (for new voter registration) were illegally submitted in a single day by individuals from BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Rajasthan.
The Chief Minister’s remarks follow a high-level meeting between TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee and the State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in Kolkata. The TMC leadership alleges that a representative of a senior BJP leader brought a “sackful of forms” to the CEO’s office, directly violating the Election Commission’s rule that limits a single individual to submitting no more than 50 Form-6 applications.
“They cannot win the hearts of Bengal, so they are trying to import voters from outside,” Mamata Banerjee told the massive gathering. She further alleged that while “illegal” voters are being added, the names of nearly 14 lakh genuine residents, particularly from minority communities and women, have been deleted during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.
The TMC has officially demanded the release of 24-hour CCTV footage from the CEO’s office to prove the scale of these submissions. “We want the people to see how 600–700 forms were filed for a single constituency in North Kolkata within hours,” Abhishek Banerjee stated earlier. The party has characterized this as “Votechori” (vote theft) and an international conspiracy to alter the state’s political identity.
The BJP has dismissed the claims as “pre-poll paranoia.” State President Samik Bhattacharya countered that the TMC is sensing an inevitable defeat and is attempting to discredit the Election Commission. The BJP maintains that the voter list purification is a transparent constitutional requirement to remove the “Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators” they claim have long been the TMC’s “fake vote bank.”
As the state moves toward the first phase of polling on April 23, 2026, this controversy over “voter infiltration” has become the central flashpoint, setting the stage for a legally and politically charged battle for Nabanna.