Trinamool to lead Parliament battle over alleged voter list fraud, targets BJP & EC

The Trinamool Congress is actively preparing to raise the issue of "irregularities in the voter list" in both houses of Parliament during the second phase of the Budget Session starting Monday. By Friday at 5 PM, the ruling party of Bengal plans to submit notices to the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats for calling attention motions, short-duration discussions, and other parliamentary tools available to MPs to draw the government's attention to pressing national issues. The party is confident that other opposition parties will join in.

A Trinamool MP stated, “This is not an issue concerning just one political party; it is about every citizen of India. Elections must be free and fair.” Under Rule 180 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business, members of Parliament have the opportunity to bring urgent matters of public importance to the government's attention. The rule states, “A member may call the attention of a minister to any matter of urgent public importance, and the minister may make a brief statement or seek time to respond later.” Each member is allowed to give two notices for calling attention motions in any one sitting. Similarly, for short-duration discussions, the rules specify that it must focus on “a definite issue.”

A Trinamool MP added, “Discussions are ongoing with other parties in the opposition bloc. Trinamool has no ego over this issue. Any party is welcome to bring the proposal forward, and Trinamool Congress is ready to support it.” According to Trinamool sources, Congress has also shown interest in raising this issue in both houses. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had brought up the voter list issue in an organizational meeting last month.

Since then, the party has been vocal against the ruling BJP at the center, which is also the main opposition party in Bengal. Last year, alleged voter list manipulation was reported in Haryana and Maharashtra after the elections, which took place following the summer’s Lok Sabha elections. Opposition parties had performed well in the general elections but suffered significant losses in the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly polls. Last month, the Aam Aadmi Party lost the Delhi Assembly elections to the BJP.

With elections in Bengal scheduled for 2026, Mamata Banerjee has chosen to target the BJP and the Election Commission. Mamata and other opposition leaders have accused the BJP of irregularities in the voter list. She has also alleged that the Election Commission helped the BJP add Hindi-speaking voters' names in districts like South Dinajpur and Murshidabad.

On Thursday, Mamata Banerjee formed a 36-member committee to investigate irregularities in the voter list, with district-wise subcommittees to probe specific disputes. However, she later dissolved the committees on Thursday night, and fresh directives are expected. Trinamool General Secretary and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee did not attend the meeting of the committee, which was chaired by the party’s state president, Subrata Bakshi.

In a blog post published on Thursday, Trinamool's Rajya Sabha leader Derek O'Brien raised concerns about electoral fraud. He wrote, “Another issue under discussion in Parliament is the alleged involvement of the Election Commission of India (EC) in voter ID card duplication. This is not just a minor clerical error; it is a serious issue affecting free and fair elections.”

Earlier this week, O'Brien, along with fellow MPs Sagarika Ghose and Kirti Azad, questioned the Election Commission’s defense that having identical numbers on two different voter ID cards in separate constituencies does not disqualify a voter from casting their vote.

“Since the Voter Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number is linked to voter details, duplicate EPIC numbers could disenfranchise voters. The Election Commission’s manual clearly states that EPIC numbers must be unique and should follow an alphanumeric sequence where the first three letters are specific to a particular assembly constituency. It is impossible for voters in two different assembly constituencies (even within the same state) to have the same first three letters on their EPIC. However, voters from different states have been found to have identical EPIC numbers. The Election Commission must first disclose how many duplicate EPICs exist in the system and how they were allocated. Why is the Election Commission still unable to ensure a unique EPIC number for every voter?” O'Brien wrote in his blog. When asked about the opening day of the upcoming Budget Session on Friday, O'Brien remarked, “This is a collaborative effort.”