TMC Sounds Alarm Over Aadhaar-Based Voter Purge in Bengal
The Trinamool Congress has declared it will fiercely resist any attempt to use UIDAI's Aadhaar data to wrongfully declare living voters as deceased during West Bengal's ongoing Special Intensive Revision of voter lists. The party's strong warning came on Thursday following Election Commission announcements about utilizing Aadhaar information to remove dead electors from electoral rolls.
Contradictory Data Claims Raise Suspicion
TMC spokesperson Arup Chakraborty highlighted a significant contradiction in UIDAI's data reporting. On Thursday, UIDAI informed the office of Chief Election Officer Manoj Agarwal that 32-34 lakh Aadhaar numbers had been deactivated in Bengal. However, this disclosure directly conflicts with UIDAI's February 26, 2024 written response to TMC Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale, where the authority stated it does not maintain state-wise, year-wise, or category-wise data for Aadhaar deactivations.
Chakraborty questioned the inconsistency, asking: "How is data that UIDAI itself does not store being given to the chief election officer?"
Election Commission's Verification Process
Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal had revealed on Wednesday that a senior UIDAI official met him on Tuesday and provided specific figures about deceased Aadhaar holders. According to the official, UIDAI has records of 32-34 lakh deceased Bengal residents since 2022 who possessed Aadhaar cards, plus an additional 13-14 lakh deceased individuals without Aadhaar.
The Election Commission plans to cross-reference this data with SIR enumeration forms. Any discrepancies found during this matching process will trigger formal notices from Election Returning Officers to applicants, requiring them to appear for hearings to prove they are alive.
Bihar Precedent Fuels Concerns
Trinamool Congress has expressed deep concerns about potential voter disenfranchisement, citing what happened in Bihar during similar exercises. In a social media post on X, the party accused the Election Commission and BJP of orchestrating "silent invisible rigging" by systematically marking living citizens as dead.
Party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh pointed to the Bihar experience where "the Election Commission declared thousands of people as 'dead' in the draft voter list, only for many of them to be found alive later". He warned that similar systematic removal of names could occur in Bengal, emphasizing that the party is particularly worried about the lack of transparent procedures and neutral verification in the data register operation.
The TMC has made it clear that they will challenge any such attempts both through legal channels in courts and through public mobilization on the streets, ensuring that legitimate voters are not deprived of their democratic rights.
