Election Commission asks Bengal govt staff to declare no duplicate voter cards

Kolkata: The Election Commission (EC) has sought affidavits from West Bengal government employees, including teachers, asking them to declare that they do not possess duplicate voter ID cards and to outline the steps being taken to remove duplicate entries from the electoral rolls.

The affidavits are to be submitted by employees whose names appear more than once in the voter list, with instructions to ensure that duplicate entries are removed if a person’s name figures in multiple places, people in the know said.

Declaration forms have been sent to the heads of departments of various government offices.


Swapan Mondal, president of the BLO & Vote Karmi Oikya Mancha, said the move was welcome, as the Election Commission aims to ensure that government employees do not face such issues.

“We support this step. I think this kind of declaration is justified,” Mondal said.

Meanwhile, the EC on Monday held a meeting to review overall preparedness in all five poll-bound states.

According to EC sources, the state police nodal officer informed the Commission that 35,000 state police personnel will be deployed for the assembly elections. Representatives of the CRPF told the EC that around 1,100 companies of central armed police forces (CAPF) may be provided for the polls.

Approximately 1,100 CAPF companies were deployed during the 2021 assembly elections.

The EC and the Union Home Ministry will hold a separate meeting to take a final decision on the deployment of central forces in the state. West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal and officials from the Union Home Ministry were present at Monday’s meeting.