ECI rebuts Abhishek Banerjee's Rejinagar bypoll vote-count claims
Synopsis
TMC's Abhishek Banerjee went viral accusing a Rejinagar booth of producing more BJP votes than registered voters — but the ECI fired back with a different voter roll figure entirely, saying the booth had 1,109 electors, not 772. The commission also turned the SIR deletion controversy on its head, showing TMC actually won four of the five seats with the highest voter deletions.
Key Takeaways
Abhishek Banerjee (TMC) alleged that Booth No.
109 in the Rejinagar bypoll returned 909 BJP votes against only 772 registered electors.
Murshidabad's DEO and DM clarified that the booth had 1,109 registered electors and 972 votes were polled — dismissing the arithmetic inconsistency.
The Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal also rebutted a separate social media video ('DeKoder') alleging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise targeted specific voter groups.
TMC candidates won 4 of the 5 constituencies with the highest voter deletions ( Samserganj, Chowrangee, Metiaburuz, Kolkata Port ), undermining claims of partisan targeting.
The claim that women accounted for 62% of exclusions was rejected; official data puts the figure at approximately 50% .
The ECI stated the SIR is a lawful process under Article 324 of the Constitution with multiple safeguard and appeal mechanisms.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday, 9 October 2026, officially rebutted allegations made by Trinamool Congress (TMC) general secretary Abhishek Banerjee that a booth in the Rejinagar Assembly bypoll recorded more votes for the winning Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate than the total number of registered electors at that booth — a claim that had quickly gone viral on social media.
What Abhishek Banerjee Alleged
Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, alleged that at Booth No. 109 in the 70-Rejinagar Assembly Constituency, BJP candidate Sakharav Sarkar secured 909 votes — despite the booth having only 772 registered voters.
'Even North Korea would struggle to explain this electoral arithmetic! Mr Gyanesh Kumar, how does a booth produce more votes for one party than its entire electorate?' Banerjee wrote in a social media post, directly addressing the Chief Election Commissioner.
ECI's Counter: Different Voter Roll Figure
Within hours, Murshidabad's District Election Officer (DEO) and District Magistrate (DM) issued a rebuttal, clarifying that the electoral roll figure cited by Banerjee was incorrect. According to the DEO and DM, the total number of registered electors at Polling Station No. 109 was 1,109 — not 772 — and 972 votes were polled across all candidates. The official statement effectively dismantled the arithmetic on which Banerjee's allegation rested.
The office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, also issued a separate rebuttal on the same day, addressing a broader set of claims made by a social media account identified as 'DeKoder', which had raised questions about voter deletions during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise and their alleged impact on West Bengal Assembly election results.
ECI Defends SIR Process and Voter Deletion Data
The CEO's office stated that the SIR exercise was conducted under Article 324 of the Constitution and Section 21 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, with 'due process and safeguards', and was aimed at protecting the integrity of electoral rolls — not at removing legitimate voters.
'The claims made in the video are misleading and speculative. No voter can be deleted without due process. Issuance of notice, an opportunity for hearing, and a speaking order by the ERO are part of the safeguards. Appeals are available at two levels,' the CEO's office stated.
Notably, the CEO's office pointed to electoral outcomes to challenge the narrative. Of the five constituencies where voter deletions were highest, TMC candidates won four — Samserganj, Chowrangee, Metiaburuz and Kolkata Port. Only Jorasanko among the five went to the BJP.
Conversely, the five constituencies with the fewest deletions — Mahishadal, Bhagabanpur, Indus, Katulpur and Patashpur — were all won by the BJP, further undermining the claim that deletions were selectively deployed to benefit any one party.
Women Voter Deletion Claim Also Rejected
The CEO's office also rejected an allegation in the 'DeKoder' video that women voters accounted for 62% of all exclusions in West Bengal. According to official data, women accounted for approximately 50% of deletions — consistent with their share of the electorate, the office said.
'SIR is a lawful, transparent and ongoing exercise to ensure that every eligible elector is on the roll and that ineligible entries are removed. Electoral rolls must be based on facts, not speculation,' the CEO's statement added. There was no official ECI comment from Abhishek Banerjee or the TMC in response to the rebuttal by late Friday.
What Comes Next
The exchange marks a sharp escalation in post-poll disputes between TMC and the election machinery in West Bengal, coming in the wake of the Rejinagar bypoll result. With the TMC having contested the outcome on social media, the ECI's point-by-point rebuttal signals that the commission is prepared to push back publicly against what it characterises as electoral misinformation. How TMC responds — and whether Banerjee retracts, doubles down, or escalates to a formal complaint — will define the next phase of this dispute.
Point of View
Data-driven rebuttal is unusual in its directness — and strategically significant. By pointing out that TMC won the most deletion-heavy seats, the commission has shifted the burden of proof back onto the opposition. But the episode also reveals how rapidly unverified electoral statistics can gain traction, and why the ECI's own voter-roll data needs to be more proactively and publicly accessible. The deeper problem is structural: when constituency-level electoral data is not easily searchable by citizens, the space for competing 'arithmetics' will persist well beyond any single bypoll.
NationPress
9 Oct 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Abhishek Banerjee allege about the Rejinagar bypoll?
Abhishek Banerjee alleged that at Booth No. 109 in the Rejinagar Assembly bypoll, BJP candidate Sakharav Sarkar received 909 votes even though the booth had only 772 registered voters — implying the result was impossible. He made the claim in a widely-shared social media post directed at the Chief Election Commissioner.
How did the ECI respond to Banerjee's claims?
Murshidabad's District Election Officer and District Magistrate issued a rebuttal stating that the correct number of registered electors at Polling Station No. 109 was 1,109 — not 772 as Banerjee claimed — and that 972 votes were polled across all candidates, making the result arithmetically consistent.
What is the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) controversy about?
A social media account called 'DeKoder' raised questions about whether the SIR exercise — a voter roll revision process — disproportionately deleted certain categories of voters and affected West Bengal Assembly election outcomes. The CEO's office rejected these claims as 'misleading and speculative', citing legal safeguards and electoral data showing TMC won four of the five constituencies with the highest voter deletions.
Were women voters disproportionately deleted during the SIR exercise?
No, according to the Chief Electoral Officer's office. A claim that women accounted for 62% of voter exclusions in West Bengal was rejected; official data shows women made up approximately 50% of deletions — broadly in line with their share of the electorate.
Who is Sakharav Sarkar and what does the Rejinagar result mean?
Sakharav Sarkar is the BJP candidate who won the Rejinagar Assembly bypoll in West Bengal's Murshidabad district. The bypoll result, and subsequent disputes over booth-level vote counts, have triggered a public confrontation between the Trinamool Congress and the Election Commission of India over electoral data transparency.
