A six-member delegation from the West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Suvendu Adhikari, met the Election Commission of India on Wednesday and raised concern over the alleged ‘fake voters’ in the state.

The delegation submitted a memorandum to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal alleging approximately 16 lakh fake or duplicate voters in the state and urged the commission to take steps to address the problem.

“Around 16 lakh fake voters have been found in West Bengal. There is evidence of double entry and deceased individuals are still named on the voters’ list. We have presented our findings to the ECI, alleging that these discrepancies were brought to facilitate the casting of fake votes in favour of the Trinamool Congress (TMC),” Adhikari said after the meeting.

“Despite assurances of weeding out duplicate voters, nothing much was achieved. We regret to put on record that practically no steps were taken. There are around 16 lakh duplicate names in the voter list. Most interestingly, the gap between votes polled by the TMC and the BJP in 2019 was around 17 lakh only,” he added.

Adhikari said he has urged the poll body to take steps to remove duplicate voters from the electoral rolls.

The BJP representatives have also requested the poll body to conduct Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal in 42 phases, corresponding to the 42 parliamentary seats in the state, to mitigate any potential for malpractice.