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

West Bengal Assembly Leader of Opposition 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 influencing booth level officers (BLOs) to add or withhold names of ineligible voters during the ongoing counting phase.

“So far [to] as per my knowledge 1 crore 20 lakh [enumeration forms] were not digitized and around 27.5 lakh names were removed from the digitized forms. But this figure is very low. The names of many dead voters and illegal Bangladeshi spies are being tarnished under the leadership of corrupt Chief Secretary Manoj Pant,” Mr. Adhikari said.

The BJP MLA from Nandigram also said that the party has ‘Form 6, 7 and 8’ powers to ensure deletion of ineligible voters during the 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 motions to delete names and changing voter details.

“In block offices, block-level government officials force BLOs to add names of dead voters, fake voters and Bangladeshi infiltrators,” Mr. Adhikari said, citing this as the reason why ‘only’ 27.5 lakh census forms were rendered uncollectible due to voter untraceability or ineligibility.

Earlier, the LoP had claimed that millions of ‘fake’ voters would be removed from the list at the end of the SIR process in the state.

Mr. Adhikari also welcomed the appointment of retired IAS officer Subrata Gupta as Special List Observer on Saturday, November 29, and the appointment of a delegation of 12 West Bengal cadre IAS officers as election list observers by the Election Commission of India. According to ECI notifications, they have been tasked to oversee the preparation of revised electoral rolls in all districts of West Bengal and “ensure that no eligible person is excluded from registration and no ineligible voter is included in the electoral roll”.

The 12 poll observers along with special poll observer Mr Gupta met West Bengal’s Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal and other election officials on Saturday (November 29).

“This move is extremely welcome. The officers appointed to this post were not allowed to work in West Bengal by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee… The team given by the Election Commission is very efficient, I suggest them to visit the block offices immediately,” the LoP said.

He also said that these officers as well as booth-level representatives of the BJP will ‘fight to cleanse’ the voter list.

‘ECI is a puppet of BJP’

Trinamool Congress spokesperson Arup Chakraborty said, “The appointment of electoral roll observers was made a few hours after State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya made it clear that the Chief Election Commissioner should personally visit West Bengal instead of supervising the SIR from his air-conditioned office. This proves what we, as the Opposition, have said time and time again, that the Election Commission has been compromised and that it is a puppet of the BJP.” Hindu On Saturday, November 29.

Referring to Mr. Bhattacharya’s press conference on Friday evening (November 28), he said Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar should come to West Bengal and see with his own eyes in what state BLOs are functioning in the state. The State BJP president had said, “Sending representatives here is not enough. The situation in West Bengal is different from other states.”

Calling the LoP a “pathological liar”, Mr Chakraborty also questioned whether Mr Adhikari was spying on the interactions of the State’s top bureaucrats.