More than 1.6 mn cases of duplication of voters in Bengal: Suvendu Adhikari

West Bengal Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari submitted a list of 1,691,132 cases from all the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state, where documents of voters showed discrepencies and evidence of double entry, to the CEO of the District Election Commission.

"We are submitting the documents and facts of false voters to the District Election Commission CEO from 42 Lok Sabha constituencies. This sums up to 1,691,132 voters. This has resulted primarily due to double entry cases," Adhikari said as he presented the elaborate list along with all the facts to the CEO.

The Leader of Opposition was part of a six-member Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) delegation who had come to the District Election Commission in Kolkata on Wednesday.

Speaking about the reason behind this duplicacy in names of the voters, Adhikari said that this would enable one voter to vote twice in different constituencies.

"The reason for this is to enable a voter to vote in one booth in the morning, apply chemical and remove the indelible ink and vote again. It can also work even if the ink is not removed because the likes of Shahjahan are present in the Trinamool Congress everywhere," Adhikari said.

The Leader of Opposition said that the BJP has been able to catch hold of this theft of votes by the Trinamool Congress and added that even if voting is held in different phases this duplication of votes is still rampant.

"We want the election to be held in 42 phases for 42 constituencies. But we have seen that even if voting is held in different phases, if someone for example votes in Jhargham, the same voter comes to Tamluk and votes in some other pahse. This mechanism has been set up by Mamata Banerjee. We have caught this theft," the senior BJP leader said.

Adhikari said that protesters in Sandeshkhali have claimed that they have not voted since the time Mamata Banerjee came to power.

"In West Bengal, there is not democracy left. In the Panchayat elections, one crore people were not allowed to vote. In Sandeshkhali everyone is saying that they have not voted since Mamata Banerjee came to power," he said.

Giving details of the number of cases of duplicate voters, Adhikari said, "In the document which we have submitted, there are 1,679,645 cases in which the name, father's name and the age of the voters are same; 11,487 cases in which EPIC is same."

The Leader of Opposition said that a sizeable number of cases of duplication is in two parliamentary constituencies where the BJP is in power and where the dalit Matua community are in predominance.

"Among these a sizeable number of voters are from two Bharatiya Janata Party's parliamentary constituencies in which Hindu migrants who had to flee from Bangladesh, Matuas are in majority- Bongaon and Ranaghat," he said.