The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal said the state’s draft voter list published on Tuesday (December 16, 2025) under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the Election Commission has completely falsified BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari’s claim that one crore Rohingyas and Bangladeshis live in the state, as the number of people marked as fake voters has been reported as 1,83,328.
Assembly elections are proposed in the state in 2026. The draft voter lists released earlier contain details of names deleted due to various reasons ranging from death and transfer to non-submission of enumeration forms. Although over 58 lakh names have been removed, the Election Commission’s classification shows that the number of ‘fake’ voters is much less than the BJP leader’s repeated claims.
BJP leader Subhendu Adhikari had earlier alleged that a large number of illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya immigrants are present in West Bengal and they have influenced election results in the past. He had urged the Election Commission to take decisive action against such voters.
The draft of the voter list does not show any numerical basis for the claim of one crore illegal voters. Officials said the figure of 1.83 lakh ‘fake’ voters reflects cases identified during the SIR process after field verification. Based on these figures, Trinamool launched a sharp counterattack and accused the leader of the opposition in the state assembly of spreading ‘misinformation’.
Trinamool spokesperson Krishnau Mitra said, ‘The names of about 58 lakh voters have been removed from the draft voter lists. According to BSF data, around 4,000 people have gone back to Bangladesh through Hakimpur border. According to the information we are getting, the average rate of deletion of names in about 80 percent Muslim dominated constituencies is 0.6 percent, while in Matua dominated constituencies this rate is about nine percent.
He asked, ‘The rate of name removal in the state is about four percent. If death cases are removed, who are the remaining removed voters? Through which borders did they leave the state?’ The party says there are no Rohingya voters in West Bengal and has alleged that the story of large-scale infiltration is being politically fabricated ahead of the elections.
Meanwhile, BJP rejected these allegations and party leader Shubhendu Adhikari made fun of these allegations and said, ‘This is just the beginning. Breakfast has just started. Lunch, tea and then dinner are left. Although Shubhendu Adhikari refrained from giving the new number of removed names, but said that he will say something about it after the final list is published on February 14.
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