In a shocking display of political muscle-flexing, Trinamool Congress activists stormed a government office in West Bengal’s Hooghly district, reportedly shredding voter deletion applications right under the nose of their own MLA. The Monday melee at the SDO (HQ) office disrupted Special Intensive Revision proceedings, fueling fears of electoral foul play.
The draft voter list review was underway when MLA Asit Mazumdar’s group arrived unannounced. Sources say TMC loyalists, emboldened by his presence, targeted Form-7 forms meant to purge dead, duplicate, or migrated voters. Chaos ensued as papers flew and rival BJP workers retaliated, leading to scuffles.
While Mazumdar rejected claims of his team’s involvement, he pivoted to blast BJP for allegedly flooding the office with fraudulent submissions. He questioned BJP leader Sukanta Majumdar’s knowledge of 1.26 lakh deletions in Hooghly, insinuating collusion between election officials and the opposition.
Onlookers decried police inaction, describing officers as passive spectators amid the pandemonium. BJP’s Suresh Saha fired back, calling it a scripted TMC tantrum to preserve fake voters for poll-day impersonation. ‘This was orchestrated with administrative connivance to thwart clean rolls,’ he charged.
The standoff exposes simmering tensions in Bengal’s voter verification drive, where accusations of list tampering threaten democratic integrity. With elections looming, such incidents demand swift investigations to restore public trust in the process.