'Diamond Harbour's 7 lakh margin an electoral aberration or organised fraud', BJP attacks Trinamool

Kolkata, Oct 19 (IANS) Trinamool Congress’ massive victory margin of over seven lakh votes from Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal in the 2024 elections is “an indictment of West Bengal’s electoral process”, the BJP claimed on Sunday.

In the Lok Sabha polls last year, Trinamool Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee was elected from Diamond Harbour for the second consecutive term by defeating BJP’s Abhijit Das a.k.a. Bobby by a margin of 7,10,930 votes.

BJP’s Information Technology Cell Chief and the party’s central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, made a social media post in the morning, where he justified his argument that this “record” margin from Diamond Harbour was a fallout of organised vote-loot.

In justifying his argument, Malviya referred to a recent television channel interview of Swapan Mandal, General Secretary of the BLO Aikya Manch, and an association of booth-level officers (BLOs) in West Bengal.

“Abhishek Banerjee’s victory margin is an indictment of West Bengal’s electoral process. Testimony from former Presiding Officer Swapan Mandal suggests this “record” was manufactured through systematic loot — revealing TMC’s brazen contempt for democracy,” said Malviya and quoted Mandal’s statements in the interview on the alleged election malpractices at Diamond Harbour in 2024.

Malviya quoted different claims by Mandal, like preventing genuine voters from casting their votes, covering EVM buttons of other candidates with black tape, leaving only the Trinamool Congress button accessible, and casting of votes in the names of deceased individuals and migrant workers who were absent from the constituency, among others.

Malviya had also claimed that the Diamond Harbour model applied in 2024 is the answer to why West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been vehemently opposing the Election Commission of India (ECI)’s Special Incentive Revision (SIR).

“Swapan Mandal has indicated that widespread irregularities — involving dead, absent, and potentially illegal voters — are inflating TMC’s numbers. A clean voter list through SIR would dismantle the very foundation of TMC’s fraudulent mandate. She needs this compromised ecosystem to survive. Diamond Harbour isn’t an isolated incident — it is the showcase model for TMC’s planned capture of the 2026 election,” Malviya said.

According to him, the first crucial step to prevent similar election malpractices in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly polls is to ensure a thorough, transparent SIR to reclaim the true mandate of Bengal’s people.

--IANS

src/dpb