West Bengal BJP MPs meet ECI, flag ‘threats’ to State election officials

West Bengal president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Samik Bhattacharya said the State will witness a ‘new kind of election’ in 2026, after a delegation of saffron party legislators met officials of the Election Commission of India (ECI) in New Delhi on Thursday (August 7, 2025).

“West Bengal will witness a new kind of election in 2026, with an electorate free of Bangladeshi infiltrators, Rohingya Muslims, dead voters,” Mr. Bhattacharya told press persons after the meeting on Thursday afternoon, referring to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly elections slated for next year.

A delegation of BJP MPs from West Bengal, comprising Mr. Bhattacharya, Abhijit Gangopadhyay, Saumitra Khan, and Kartick Chandra Paul, met with ECI officials in New Delhi on Thursday and submitted a letter flagging alleged threats made by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to electoral officers in the State over the possible revision of voter lists.

This development unfolds amidst an ongoing campaign by the Bengal BJP for the removal of ‘foreign infiltrators and fake voters’ from the State’s electoral rolls, and against the State government and Trinamool Congress for allegedly curbing election officials from discharging their duties. 

In a letter addressed to the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners on August 7, the BJP accused Ms. Banerjee of “damaging and diluting the avowed objective of free and fair elections”, citing instances of her ‘driving fear’ into the minds of election officials.

“As the Assembly elections draw close, Trinamool Congress and the Chief Minister of West Bengal have become rather restive and strident in driving the fear in minds of officials of the State, who also would be performing election related functions. Her oft-repeated threat that ‘ECI will come and go, but you have to work with me in the state’, seriously damages and dilutes the avowed objective of Free & Fair elections,” the letter reads.

The letter cites an administrative meeting at Bolpur in Birbhum district on July 28, where Ms. Banerjee told electoral officials and district administration not to harass genuine voters, not to take any drastic revisionary measures without informing her, and to remember that “outside of elections, they work for the State government.”

“The Chief Minister, Ms. Mamata Banerjee on 6th August 2025, in a Bhasha Andolan Rally in Jhargram, publicly made remarks against the Election Commission, that are not only contemptuous and disparaging, but appear deliberately aimed at shielding the irregularities committed and assailing the constitutional authority of the Election Commission of India,” BJP’s letter to the ECI dated August 7 also reads. 

It refers to the Chief Minister’s comments on the suspension and lodging of First Information Reports (FIRs) against four electoral officers of the State by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal, where she accused the ECI of being the “bonded labour of the BJP.” 

On August 5, the Election Commission suspended four officials of the West Bengal State Electoral Office and ordered the filing of FIRs against them for ‘grave lapses’ allegedly committed by them.

“Our officers have been sent notice that they have been suspended... Has the election been already declared? Under which law have you (the EC) sent notice and threatened to suspend (them) and said that an FIR should be registered? This will not happen. I won’t allow punishment for the officers,” Ms. Banerjee had said on August 6 at a gathering in Jhargram.

In the letter on Thursday, the BJP urged the ECI to ensure personnel and constitutional authorities tasked with election duties fulfil their obligations and responsibilities, and be held accountable by the central body.

LoP urges officers to work ‘without fear or favour’

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari wrote an open letter to the West Bengal Civil Service (WBCS) officers, urging them to “do their duties without fear or favour.” 

“Over the years, [Trinamool] perfected scientific rigging, enrolling fictitious voters, deleting Hindu voters’ names, and adding illegal infiltrators, Bangladeshi Muslims, to the voter lists.  For the sake of the future of West Bengal, it’s time the WBCS Officers perform their Constitutional duties,” the BJP MLA said in a social media post.