The Election Commission has summoned West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant to its Delhi office on August 13, 2025, at 3 PM. On August 5, the Commission directed Pant to suspend and file FIRs against two Assistant Electoral Registration Officers, two Electoral Registration Officers, and a data entry operator for illegally adding multiple names to the voter lists of Baruipur and Moyna constituencies during a sample survey of electoral rolls. The Election Commission directed West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant to initiate departmental proceedings against the implicated officials, in addition to their suspension and the filing of FIRs.
EC’s summons to Bengal Chief Secretary follows a heated dispute over alleged electoral malpractices in the preparation of voter lists for the Baruipur Purba and Moyna Assembly constituencies in West Bengal.
On August 5, 2025, the ECI issued a directive to Manoj Pant, ordering the immediate suspension of five individuals—two Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), two Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs), and a data entry operator—for their involvement in the wrongful addition of names to the electoral rolls of Baruipur Purba (South 24 Parganas district) and Moyna (Purba Medinipur district). The officials named were Debottam Dutta Choudhury (ERO, Baruipur Purba), Tathagata Mondal (AERO, Baruipur Purba), Biplab Sarkar (ERO, Moyna), Sudipta Das (AERO, Moyna), and Surojit Halder (data entry operator). The ECI also mandated the filing of First Information Reports (FIRs) against these individuals for “criminal misconduct,” citing violations of data security protocols, including sharing login credentials of the electoral registration database with unauthorised persons.
What Happened?
The ECI’s actions were based on a report from West Bengal’s Chief Electoral Officer, Manoj Kumar Agarwal, submitted on July 29, 2025, which flagged irregularities during a sample survey of voter lists. The report alleged that the officials failed to verify applications properly and added “fictitious voters” to the rolls, potentially compromising the integrity of the electoral process.
