If vote chori, how did we lose? BJP cites Bengal seats with most deletions
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hit out at the Opposition over the row surrounding the Election Commission’s dissent report, arguing that the claim that voter deletions helped the BJP win the Bengal election does not hold up.
“The edifice is that because of the deletion of voters from the voter list, the BJP won in Bengal. The highest number of voters were deleted in 20 Assembly seats, of which the TMC won 13 and the BJP won six. If we won through ‘vote chori’, then how did we lose more than half of the seats?” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra asked.
Patra cited the example of several seats, including Murshidabad’s Samserganj, where 91,712 voters -- more than one in three names -- were deleted from the electoral rolls after the SIR, the highest number of deletions from a single seat in Bengal.
Mohammed Noor Alam of the All India Trinamool Congress won the seat with 61,918 votes, defeating his closest rival from the Congress, while the BJP was nowhere in the picture.
Patra launched an all-out attack on the Opposition after the Election Commission responded to an Indian Express report that revealed that two of the three Election Commissioners had objected to several SIR processes, including those conducted during the recently concluded Bengal Assembly elections.
As Patra defended the BJP, former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee launched a Facebook Live of her own, demanding fresh elections in Bengal and the arrest of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, while calling the Indian Express report “scandalous.”
"BJP and Gyanesh Kumar is a joint venture company. They together looted the Bengal election. If you have any moral strength, give back our election," Banerjee said.
Patra said Opposition parties had been rejected by people since 2014, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power.
“You would remember that since 2014 after Modi ji came to power, all opposition political parties have been rejected by people,” he said.
He said the Congress began attacking constitutional institutions after realising that it could not win the hearts of people in India.
“When Congress party realised that it cannot win over the hearts of people of India, it started attacking constitutional institutions,” Patra said.
He accused the Opposition of repeatedly attacking the Election Commission of India.
“They have been attacking ECI. But now ECI has issued a detailed note,” he said.
Patra said the Election Commission’s note showed that official deliberations had taken place among all the Election Commissioners.
“According to this note, it has been observed that official deliberations have happened between all election commissioners,” he said.
“This tells us that this is the beauty of democratic process. After all deliberations, all election commissioners were on the same page,” Patra said.- EndsPublished By: Sonali VermaPublished On: Sep 23, 2026 15:56 IST
