Kolkata, 16 December (H.S.) :

Significant figures have emerged from the draft electoral rolls published in West Bengal, particularly concerning Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Bhabanipur Assembly constituency. Compared to the previous electoral roll valid till October 2025, a total of 44,770 voters have been excluded from the draft list in this south Kolkata seat.

According to the draft rolls, 127 names have been removed from booth number 260, the polling station where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee are registered voters. Of these, 13 voters have been recorded as deceased, while the remaining names were removed on grounds such as relocation, untraceable addresses, duplication, or other reasons.

It may be recalled that in the 2021 Assembly elections, Mamata Banerjee suffered a narrow defeat of around 2,000 votes to BJP candidate Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram. She later returned to the Assembly by winning the Bhabanipur by-election, retaining the chief minister’s post for a third consecutive term.

Bhabanipur is one of the seven Assembly segments under the Kolkata South Lok Sabha constituency. In the 2024 general elections, Trinamool Congress candidate Mala Roy was re-elected from Kolkata South for a second term. However, the party lagged behind in several Kolkata Municipal Corporation wards falling under the Bhabanipur and adjacent Rashbehari Assembly areas.

In 2024, the Trinamool Congress also trailed in Kolkata Municipal Corporation ward number 73, where the chief minister herself is a voter. These results had triggered renewed political discussions around the Bhabanipur seat.

In October this year, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had expressed apprehensions over possible irregularities in the Bhabanipur electoral roll, alleging attempts to include outsiders without naming any political party. Reacting to her statement, BJP IT cell head and the party’s central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, had said the apprehension reflected fear of defeat in the upcoming Assembly elections.

With the release of the latest draft electoral roll data, Bhabanipur has once again become the focal point of political debate in the state.

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh