TMC Accuses Election Commission of Data Manipulation in West Bengal Elections

TMC Raises Concerns Over Voter Data Discrepancies

Following the initial phase of elections in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has leveled accusations against the Election Commission, claiming a data scam. The party asserts that a total of 9 million names were removed from the voter list. According to the voting statistics from the first phase, only 1.8 million names were reportedly cut from the list for 152 seats. This raises questions about the removal of 7.8 million names for the upcoming second phase, which involves 142 seats. TMC argues that this discrepancy is illogical. They have accused the Election Commission of manipulating data and failing to disclose the total number of votes cast in the first phase.

TMC's national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale took to social media to express his concerns. He criticized the Election Commission for a press release issued the previous night, which detailed the total number of voters for the 152 seats in the first phase of the Bengal elections. The Commission reported that the total number of voters for these seats was 36 million.

Gokhale further pointed out that according to the Election Commission's data, the total number of voters for these 152 seats in 2021 was 37,815,288 (3.78 million). This indicates that only 1.8 million voters' names were removed from these seats post the voter list revision. He noted that the overall number of names removed across West Bengal, including those under scrutiny, totals 9 million.

https://twitter.com/SaketGokhale/status/2047547485841916367

He raised further questions, stating that according to the data released by the Election Commission, only 1.8 million names were removed from the 152 seats in the first phase. This implies that the total number of names removed from the remaining 142 seats in the second phase should be 7.2 million, which does not add up.

The TMC MP accused the Election Commission of withholding the total number of voters for the seats where voting occurred, claiming this was done to maintain their false narrative of unprecedented voter turnout. He suggested that this tactic was intended to support the BJP's propaganda that higher voter turnout indicates a negative sentiment against the current government.