The Election Commission of India has given the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal a 7-day deadline on Wednesday (13th August) to take action against state election officials accused of adding fake voters to the voter list. The top election body asked the West Bengal Chief Secretary, Manoj Pant, to implement its August 5 order, which directed the suspension of four election officials, the removal of a data entry operator, and the filing of FIRs against them.
The development comes after the Chief Secretary was called to Delhi last week by the Commission for not complying with its order, after he wrote to the Commission on Monday (11the August), terming the suspension and FIR order “disproportionately harsh” and having a “demoralising impact” on Bengal’s officers’ community.
As per reports, the Chief Secretary told the Commission in Delhi that inquiries have been initiated against the officers, and appropriate action would be taken based on the inquiry findings. However, he is also said to have informed the Election Commission that he could not act against the officials without consulting the state government.
During a sample checking of voter application forms last month, the Election Commission found that the election officials allowed fake voter applications to be registered by misusing their authority. Two Electoral Registration Offices (EROs) and two Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) admitted during questioning that they shared their login credentials to the ERO.net portal with unauthorised persons.
Moreover, the officials did not follow proper procedure for the registration of voter application forms by dispensing with the requirement of BLOs’ verification of the forms. Subsequently, the CEO of West Bengal ordered an urgent investigation into the matter and directed the District Election Officer (DEO) to form a team of senior officials and conduct a sample check of all the voter application forms disposed of during the last year, and submit a report by August 14, 2025.
Mamata Banerjee avowed to protect the erring officers
Notably, after the Election Commission’s action against the election officers, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee publicly alleged that state government employees were being intimidated and that she would protect them. “The state government employees are being intimidated. The officers were served suspension notices yesterday. Have the elections even been announced yet? Which law allows them to be suspended at this stage? It is our responsibility to protect you all. We will do that. We will not suspend them… I will continue to be your pehredar (guard),” Banerjee said at a public meeting in Jhargram last week.
There might be around 1 crore fake voters in West Bengal
Amid the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise conducted by the Election Commission last month in Bihar, Banerjee said that she would not allow the SIR in West Bengal. Banerjee’s aversion to an SIR, which is a routine exercise undertaken by the ECI to remove bogus voters and update the electoral rolls, in West Bengal lends weight to allegations that her government allowed lakhs of fake voters, especially illegal immigrants, to be registered in the state by obtaining forged documents. Pertinently, West Bengal is said to be among the states with the highest numbers of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. In the last three years, 2688 Bangladeshi nationals were apprehended and sent back to Bangladesh.
The claims were further strengthened by a recently published research paper, which revealed that West Bengal may include around one crore excess voters, recording an inflation of whopping 13.69%. The research paper tiled: “Electoral Roll Inflation in West Bengal: A Demographic Reconstruction of Legitimate Voter Counts (2024)”; is authored by Dr. Milan Kumar, Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Management Visakhapatnam and Dr. Vidhu Shekhar, Assistant Professor at SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and IIM Calcutta. Published on 7th August 2025, the paper relies on official data from electoral rolls, census, and civil registration systems to estimate the surviving voters from the 2004 base roll, additions through new cohorts (1986-2006 births), and adjustments for net permanent migration.
The SIR conducted by the ECI in Bihar uncovered over 60 lakh unverified voters. Around 35 lakh people were either untraceable or had permanently relocated, 22 lakhs were labelled as deceased, and 7 lakh voters were enrolled in multiple locations, while about 1.2 lakh forms are pending. The entire opposition, including Mamata Banerjee’s TMC, has been opposing the SIR by alleging that it is a conspiracy to disenfranchise large number of voters, a claim rejected by the Supreme Court.