During the sample checking of voter application forms (Form 6) for routine updates to the electoral roll, the West Bengal Election Commission discovered that a significant number of fake voter application forms had been accepted by Electoral Registration Offices (EROs) in some districts of West Bengal. According to the CEO, two EROs have admitted that they accepted a considerable number of fake voter application forms.
“Sample checking of less than 1% Form 6 disposals by EROs during continuous updation has revealed that two (2) had accepted a considerable number of Form 6 for fictitious voters,” the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, wrote in a letter dated July 28, 2025, addressed to all District Election Officers (DEO).
The two EROs admitted that they gave the Assistant Electoral Registration Officers access to the ERO.net portal in the BDO Office, after which “casual data entry operators” disposed of Form 6 applications.
In the letter, the CEO said that the EROs also dispensed with the requirement of BLOs’ verification of the forms. “In all these cases, BLO’s verification was dispensed with, without any apparent urgency/requirement and similar documents were captured for a large number of application forms and their verification reports,” the letter stated.
The CEO ordered an urgent probe into the matter and directed the 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. The CEO gave the DEOs a deadline of August 14, 2025, to submit a report. “Whilst appropriate action in these and other cases is being contemplated, District Election Officers are hereby directed to form a team of senior officers and have the sample checking of all Form 6 disposals done during the last one year and send a report to the undersigned by 14th August, 2025, positively,” the CEO said.
Speculations of an electoral revision in West Bengal
The probe order coincided with the publication of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) 2002 data on the state election commission’s website. This has fanned the speculations of the state election commission conducting an electoral roll revision ahead of the state assembly elections next year.
Recently, the Bihar Election Commission conducted an SIR in the state, which goes to the polls in October-November this year. The opposition, including the Trinamool Congress, vehemently opposed the electoral revision in the state, claiming that it was a pretext to covertly implement the National Registrar of Citizens (NRC).
Several opposition leaders, including TMC MP Mahua Moitra, moved the Supreme Court challenging the electoral revision in Bihar. However, the Supreme Court refused to stay the exercise, citing that it was a routine exercise to update the voter list, which the Election Commission was empowered to undertake. Notably, after the SIR in Bihar, around 51 lakh voters were removed from the list, including 18 lakh deceased voters, 26 lakh voters who migrated, and 7 lakh duplicate names. Amid the electoral revision in Bihar, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on July 21, 2025, that she would not allow SIR in West Bengal.
BJP raises concerns regarding fake voters in West Bengal
Recently, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari alleged that there was a considerable increase in the number of voter applications in the districts bordering Bangladesh. Adhikari pointed out that this overlapped with the state administration directive to the district-level officers to issue domicile certificates. He said that he wrote to the ECI to ensure that domicile certificates issued on or after July 25, 2025, are not accepted if an SIR is conducted in West Bengal before the 2026 assembly elections.
For a long time, the BJP has been raising the issue of fake or duplicate voters in the state of West Bengal. In February 2024, a 6-member delegation of the BJP led by Suvendu Adhikari submitted a memorandum to the CEO of West Bengal alleging that there were 16 lakh fake or duplicate votes in the state. It urged the commission to take immediate steps to address the issue.In December 2023, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey pointed out the problem of Bangladeshi illegal immigrants in the country and demanded that the Central government implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) as soon as possible. Dubey is an MP from Jharkhand’s Godda.
