A major political storm has erupted in West Bengal ahead of the April 2026 Assembly elections, with the ruling Trinamool Congress accusing the BJP of flooding election offices with tens of thousands of fraudulent voter registration forms — and the Election Commission of alleged inaction.
The controversy centers on Form 6, the official application used for new voter registration. According to Election Commission of India rules, no individual or party representative can submit more than 50 Form 6 applications at a time. However, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee alleged a brazen violation of this cap. “As per ECI, more than 50 Form 6s can’t be submitted by anyone. A total of about 30,000 applications of Form 6 were submitted today, which are not from voters of West Bengal,” he stated after meeting the state’s Chief Electoral Officer.
Banerjee also shared viral videos on social media showing bundled stacks of Form 6 applications stored at the CEO’s office, demanding the release of CCTV footage for verification. He alleged the applications may belong to residents of other states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, raising serious concerns about duplication and electoral fraud.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee escalated the matter by writing directly to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, describing it as a “grave conspiracy” against Bengal’s democracy. She alleged that BJP agents were “caught red-handed” flooding the Chief Electoral Officer’s office with thousands of fraudulent applications to smuggle non-residents into Bengal’s electoral rolls — what she termed “voter hijacking.”
Banerjee also demanded that the EC immediately halt acceptance of any new Form 6 submissions after the final electoral roll was published on February 28, 2026, calling such additions “illegal, unconstitutional, and fundamentally undemocratic.”
The BJP has dismissed all allegations as politically motivated. The Election Commission is yet to issue a formal response, but the controversy has cast a long shadow over the credibility of West Bengal’s electoral process.
