Kolkata: A controversy has surfaced in West Bengal after the Election Commission of India (ECI) summoned the mother, brother, and brother’s wife of a Trinamool Congress legislator to appear for hearing on the claims and objections on the draft voters’ list despite all having names in the 2002 voters’ list, the last time when the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) was conducted in the state.
The said legislator, Nabin Chandra Bag from Khandaghosh Assembly constituency in East Burdwan district, has accused the ECI of deliberately sending notices for hearing to his mother and brother, on the instructions of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“I am a Trinamool Congress legislator. That is why my mother, brother, and brother’s wife have been summoned for a hearing, despite all of them having names in the 2002 voters’ list. This has been done deliberately to harass me and my family members. Following the summons, my mother panicked. I think that this has been done on the BJP’s insistence,” he said.
However, the district leadership of the BJP in East Burdwan has refuted such allegations.
“The Trinamool Congress legislator is trying to mislead people. Often, voters are summoned because of the name-spelling mismatch. Something of that sort might have happened in these cases also. Trinamool Congress came to power in West Bengal in 2011 by misleading the people of the state. Now they are again misleading the people because of the recent initiative to exclude illegal Bangladeshi voters from the list. But his attempts on this count would not be successful,” said local BJP leader Mrityunjay Chandra.
Nabin Chandra Bag is a three-time legislator from Khandaghosh since 2011. However, from 2011 to 2016, he was a CPI(M) legislator. Before the 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections, he joined Trinamool Congress and subsequently got elected as a ruling party candidate twice — in 2016 and 2021.
The hearing session on the draft voters’ list will start on Saturday. The final voters’ list will be published on February 14, 2026. Soon after that, the ECI will announce the polling dates for the crucial Assembly polls in the state.
(IANS)
