Trinamool Congress and BJP supporters clash outside the Election Commission of India office, in Kolkata on March 31, 2026.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Violence erupted outside the Chief Electoral Officer’s office in Kolkata on Tuesday (March 31, 2026), with clashes between Trinamool Congress and BJP workers over allegations that Form 6, used to apply for the fresh inclusion of names in the electoral roll, is being submitted in large numbers in West Bengal.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar about the issue. “BJP agents have been caught red-handed flooding the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal with thousands of fraudulent Form 6 applications to smuggle non-residents and outsiders into Bengal’s electoral rolls. This is an attempt at voter hijacking,” Ms. Banerjee alleged, calling for the Election Commission to punish such actions which are “illegal, unconstitutional, and fundamentally undemocratic in nature.”
In response to the allegations, CEO Manoj Kumar Agarwal said: “This is not my work. I cannot keep checking who is bringing what into my office. Should I conduct elections in the whole State or keep doing this?”
Bulk submissions
An organisation of booth level officers (BLOs) supported by the State’s ruling Trinamool Congress alleged that it had caught a BJP worker carrying over 400 Form 6 applications into the CEO, WB office in Kolkata. The BLOs and TMC workers staged a protest outside the CEO’s office, flagging this issue. BJP workers also reached the spot and engaged with the TMC workers, leading to a heated exchange.
TMC protestors alleged that the BJP was trying to enrol voters from outside Bengal to influence the polls in its favour. Central forces and local police were both deployed to the spot to bring the tense situation under control. Police, armed with batons, charged protestors in a bid to de-escalate the heated scuffle between the party workers.
This came a day after TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee sent a formal complaint to the CEO, WB on Monday night, alleging that the ECI is changing the demography of Bengal by including voters from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in the State’s electoral rolls. He claimed that the BJP had submitted at least 30,000 Form 6 applications in bulk.
‘Attack against poll officers’
BJP MP Sukanta Majumdar disclaimed responsibility, saying that these complaints were a matter for the Election Commission. “I do not have any information if the BJP has made any such [Form 6] submissions,” Mr. Majumdar said.
Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari lodged a formal complaint against Ms. Banerjee for provoking voters against the Central forces. “She is asking the women of the house to fight the Central forces. This is a direct attack against the officers engaged in election work,” Mr. Adhikari alleged.
Appellate tribunals open
Meanwhile, the EC has started accepting online applications by voters who have been deleted from the final voter list but want to contest the decision in an appellate tribunal.
Of the 60 lakh voters who were placed under adjudication during the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, at least 13 lakh names have been deleted among the 32 lakh disposed cases, the CEO office had confirmed last week. These people can appeal to the tribunal for reconsideration of their cases. Though multiple supplementary lists have been published, the complete supplementary list for the 60 lakh voters are yet to be made public.
Published – March 31, 2026 09:43 pm IST
