Trinamool says Bengal draft rolls ‘puncture’ BJP’s ‘one crore Rohingyas’ claim as ‘ghost voters’ at 1.83L

The ruling Trinamool Congress said the draft electoral rolls of West Bengal, published on Tuesday, December 16, 2025, under the EC’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR), sharply refutes BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari’s claim that the state is home to “one million Rohingyas and Bangladeshis” and that the number of voters identified as ‘fake’ or ‘ghost’ is stable. 1,83,328.

The draft, published after a month of counting, verification and review before the 2026 parliamentary elections, includes detailed deletions on various grounds, from death and permanent migration to duplication and non-submission of census forms.

Supreme Court hearing on SIR LIVE – 16 December 2025

Although more than 58 lakh names have been removed, the EC’s classification shows that the number of ‘fake’ voters falls far short of the BJP leader’s repeated claims.

Mr. Adhikari had previously alleged that illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya immigrants are present in large numbers in West Bengal and have affected election results in the past. He had urged the EC to take decisive action against such voters.

But the draft lists do not show a numerical basis for the claim of one crore illegal voters. The figure of 1.83 lakh ‘ghost’ voters represents cases flagged during the SIR process after field verification, officials said.

Backed by data, the TMC seized the opportunity to launch a harsh counter-attack, accusing the opposition leader in the state assembly of spreading “misinformation”.

TMC spokesperson Krishanu Mitra said, “Around 58 lakh voters have been deleted in the draft lists. According to BSF data, around 4,000 people have crossed back to Bangladesh through the Hakimpur border. From what we hear, in nearly 80 per cent Muslim-dominated constituencies, the average deletion rate is 0.6%, while in Matua-dominated districts, the average deletion rate is around 9%.”

“The state’s overall expungement rate is around 4 percent. If you exclude deaths, who are the remaining expunged voters? What borders did they leave?” he asked.

The party maintained that there were no Rohingya voters in West Bengal and alleged that the mass infiltration narrative was politically manufactured ahead of the elections.

While the BJP denied the allegations, Adhikari mocked the accusation and said, “This is just the beginning. Breakfast has just started. There will be lunch, tea and then dinner.”

While Adhikari refrained from giving new figures on deletions, he said that he would speak after the final lists are published on February 14, according to the commission’s calendar.

The release of the draft rolls coincided with increasing political controversy over alleged cross-border movement, especially in parts of North 24 Parganas bordering Bangladesh.

The steady flow of undocumented Bangladeshis returning from the Hakimpur and Bongaon borders has emerged as a new flashpoint, sharpening the BJP-TMC’s hostilities over infiltration, contested voter lists and the EC’s high-risk exercise of SIR months ahead of the polls.

Local residents and security personnel in the Bongaon border areas said that since early November, when the SIR process gained momentum, there have been instances of undocumented migrants trying to return to Bangladesh through narrow mud paths and walkways.

Although the numbers involved were small, the images gained enormous political resonance.

What started as a silent and largely unnoticed backlash has now become a symbolic spectacle; both sides use it to reinforce rival narratives; The BJP has cited concerns of infiltration and the TMC has argued that the scale is exaggerated far beyond the data.

With 2026 assembly elections on the horizon, the fight over the numbers – who is deleted, why they are deleted and what it means – is expected to intensify as voter data becomes another arena of political contests in the state.