The Trinamool Congress has strongly reacted to what they called the “barged entry” of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in electoral affairs, after the Aadhar authorities flagged about 34 lakh Aadhar card holders in West Bengal as “deceased”, prompting the Election Commission of India (ECI) to begin a deletion of such names.
“This is an unconstitutional act. It seems the ECI is following the Bihar path to delete names by getting the Aadhar authorities to barge into the electoral affairs. It is the same authorities that had earlier told Parliament that it had no mechanism to preserve state-wise or age-wise data of Aadhar cardholders. If that be so, then how could they produce this figure of 34 lakh?” Trinamool Congress spokesperson Arup Chakrabarty said. This after the Chief Electoral Officer’s office proceeded to enquire into the matter so that the names of the “deceased” voters could be deleted.
Earlier, the UIDAI said that about 34 lakh cardholders in Bengal had been found to be deceased, while another 13 lakh names had never been included in the Aadhar regime since the Aadhar card was introduced in January 2009. The information was reportedly shared during a meeting between UIDAI authorities and Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal. Earlier, the CEOs had been directed to coordinate with the Aadhar authorities regarding the matter.
SIR was currently in progress in Bengal, where the booth-level officers (BLOs) were conducting door-to-door verification by distributing enumeration forms based on the 2025 electoral rolls. After these forms were filled up and submitted by the voters, they would be verified with the 2002 electoral rolls when SIR was last held.
“As there have been numerous complaints coming regarding ghost and deceased voters, the information provided by the Aadhar authorities will be of immense help,” a senior election official said.
“The development is highly suspicious because it came at a time when the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was in process,” TMC leader Debangshu Bhattacharya said, iterating, “Our leader Abhishek Banerjee has already said that even if a single name is unlawfully deleted, then there will be consequences.”
In Bihar, too the “ECI had deleted names of lakhs of people as deceased, but subsequently they were forced to re-include many of them, though many others were still left out. This was done at the behest of the BJP so that they can win the elections,” the TMC leader said, adding, “In Bengal, however, we will not let their cunning game plan succeed. Remember, this is Mamata Banerjee they are dealing with.”
Following the ECI directive, the poll officials have started counterchecking the matter with the banks, as “most of the accounts are linked to bank accounts. So once this is crosschecked, the names will be deleted,” an official said.
The information was reportedly shared during a meeting between UIDAI authorities and Bengal CEO Manoj Kumar Agarwal
