Kolkata, 9 December (H.S.): West Bengal Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday levelled serious allegations against the Trinamool Congress government, claiming that it is conducting rapid, state-wide camps to hastily issue SC, ST, and OBC certificates. According to him, these camps are being misused to benefit “undocumented infiltrators and fake claimants” ahead of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll.

Adhikari shared a memorandum issued by the Block Development Officer of Kandi in Murshidabad district, which mentioned that such certificate-issuing camps would be held at panchayat offices from December 08 to 12. He urged the Election Commission to thoroughly scrutinise all certificates issued after June 24, arguing that the first phase of SIR in Bihar began on that date and therefore any documents issued thereafter must be examined with “extra caution.”

In a post on X, Adhikari asserted that the upcoming SIR would expose what he called the TMC’s “voter fraud.” He alleged that the names of a large section of the ruling party’s vote base do not match the original 2002 voter list and could be excluded from the draft rolls. This, he claimed, explains why the government is “rushing to conduct camps in panic.”

The BJP leader alleged that the state government intends to provide certificates to individuals who entered India illegally from Bangladesh so that they can present these documents as part of the 13 acceptable proofs required by the Election Commission. He claimed this would lead to large-scale inclusion of “fake SC, ST, and OBC entries” and amounted to “tampering with democracy.”

Adhikari further alleged that genuine members of marginalised communities are being deprived of their rights. “If ineligible individuals secure these certificates, the real SC, ST, and OBC groups will lose their rightful benefits,” he said.

Demanding rigorous verification of every certificate, Adhikari insisted that only those belonging to the communities listed by the Centre should be recognised. He also recalled earlier allegations that the state government had issued OBC certificates to ineligible people, a matter that courts had intervened in.

Expressing hope that the SIR process would “cleanse the electoral roll,” Adhikari said it was essential to protect the integrity of democracy in West Bengal.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh