{"id":667422,"date":"2026-09-24T12:53:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T16:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/?p=667422"},"modified":"2026-09-24T12:53:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T16:53:39","slug":"abhishek-banerjee-questions-election-commission-cites-alleged-whatsapp-chats-over-voter-list-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/667422\/","title":{"rendered":"Abhishek Banerjee Questions Election Commission, Cites Alleged WhatsApp Chats Over Voter-List Row"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Kolkata:<\/strong> The political confrontation over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal has intensified, with Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee raising fresh allegations against the Election Commission of India (ECI) and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.<\/p>\n

Banerjee on Thursday shared screenshots purportedly taken from a WhatsApp group involving election observers and claimed that the exchanges, dating back to April, raise serious questions about the manner in which the electoral process was handled in West Bengal. He alleged that there had been a plan to remove nearly 30 lakh names from the electoral rolls and claimed that such deletions could politically benefit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).<\/p>\n

The authenticity and complete context of the screenshots circulated by Banerjee have not been independently verified.<\/p>\n

According to the screenshots made public by Banerjee, a participant identifying himself as \u201cGeneral Observer 190, Chunchura\u201d allegedly wrote that observers had earlier been instructed to restrict themselves to monitoring duties, but were subsequently being asked to carry out administrative functions in West Bengal. The purported message sought clarification from the Election Commission regarding what the sender described as a change in policy.<\/p>\n

Other messages included in the screenshots reportedly referred to communication between election observers and the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO). One purported exchange claimed that observers had initially been advised against interacting with the CEO but were later called to attend a series of meetings.<\/p>\n

Another circulated message referred to an alleged confrontation during a meeting involving a state government administrative official. According to the purported message, inappropriate or abusive language was used during the interaction. The sender reportedly called for the transfer of the Chief Electoral Officer, arguing that such a step was necessary to ensure the fairness of the electoral process.<\/p>\n

Banerjee said the controversy should not be viewed merely as a dispute over messages exchanged in a WhatsApp group. According to him, the larger issue concerns the transparency, independence and integrity of the electoral process.<\/p>\n

He alleged that the April exchanges point to a coordinated attempt to remove a large number of voters from the electoral rolls. Banerjee called on Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to publicly address the allegations and also urged the Chief Justice of India to take note of the matter.<\/p>\n

The controversy comes amid broader scrutiny of the SIR exercise in West Bengal. The Election Commission has informed the Supreme Court that 27.16 lakh voters were removed from the electoral rolls during the revision process, while more than 22 lakh of those voters subsequently filed appeals seeking inclusion.<\/p>\n

The latest allegations also come against the backdrop of reports of differences within the Election Commission over certain SIR-related decisions. Media reports have said Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi recorded objections on multiple occasions to decisions or instructions concerning electoral-roll revision. Election Commission sources, however, have rejected suggestions of an institutional split and maintained that SIR-related decisions were taken unanimously.<\/p>\n

Banerjee has previously questioned the alleged use of informal communication channels for election-related instructions. Earlier in 2026, the TMC also accused the Election Commission of issuing certain directions through WhatsApp rather than through formal administrative channels.<\/p>\n

With the SIR process already the subject of political and judicial scrutiny, Banerjee’s latest allegations have added another layer to the dispute. The central questions now concern the authenticity and context of the circulated messages, the procedures followed during the revision of West Bengal’s electoral rolls, and the Election Commission’s response to the allegations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kolkata: The political confrontation over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal has intensified, with Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee raising fresh allegations against the Election Commission of India (ECI) and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Banerjee on Thursday shared screenshots purportedly taken from a WhatsApp group involving election observers and claimed that the exchanges, dating back to April, raise serious questions about the manner in which the electoral process was handled in West Bengal. He alleged that there had been a plan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":667423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47743],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-667422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667422"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":667425,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667422\/revisions\/667425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}