The Election Commission of India has asked the Bengal government to suspend four officials and initiate disciplinary proceedings and lodge FIRs against them for allegedly inserting fictitious names in the electoral rolls of two Assembly segments.

Reports against officials of two other Assembly segments reached the Nirvachan Sadan in New Delhi on Monday for their alleged involvement in entering bogus names in
the rolls.

It is the first time that the poll panel has asked the state government to initiate action against government officials even before the electoral roll revision started in Bengal. The alleged voter list manipulation will serve as ratification of the EC’s initiative to undertake a special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bengal ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls, notwithstanding the objections raised by the Trinamool Congress.

“The EC had in the past asked the state to remove some officers from election-related duties. But this is the first time the poll panel has asked the state to suspend and lodge FIRs against officers,” said a bureaucrat.

The EC has asked chief secretary Manoj Pant to place electoral registration officers (EROs) and assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs) of Moyna and Baruipur (East) Assembly segments of East Midnapore and South 24-Parganas, respectively, for their alleged failure to supervise election-related work. The government will have to initiate disciplinary proceedings and lodge FIRs against them as their actions “potentially amount to criminal misconduct”.

Sources in the state administration said the EC’s instruction was usually binding on the state government, as they had been found guilty of neglecting election-related work even though poll notification was not in place.

“The letter has just reached Nabanna. The top brass of the government will take a call on this. The EC will be informed about the state’s move,” said a senior government official.

Last week, the office of the chief electoral officer (CEO) of Bengal had sent a report to Nirvachan Sadan against the four officials after it had been found during a sample checking exercise that 87 fictitious names had been inserted in the electoral rolls of Moyna and 38 bogus names had been entered in the voters’ list of Baruipur (East). All the fictitious names were inserted in the electoral rolls over the past two months.

The EC also found that several names had been entered in the electoral rolls against a single document. Moreover, forged and bogus documents were used to insert the names on the list. The list carried the names of non-existent voters.

“The names are included in the electoral rolls through the log-in ID of the EROs. AEROs are responsible for checking and investigating details of the applicants,” said a source.

The four officials are Debottam Dutta Choudhury, deputy project director (monitoring), district rural development cell, South 24-Parganas and ERO of Baruipur (East); Tathagata Mondal, assistant programme officer, MGNREGA, Joynagar - 1 block and AERO of Baruipur (East); Biplab Sarkar, district officer minority affairs, East Midnapore and ERO of Moyna; and
Sudipta Das, panchayat accounts & audit officer, Tamluk block and AERO of Moyna.

The move by the poll panel has sent a message to the booth-level officers (BLOs), AEROs and the EROs, who will be the eyes and ears of the poll panel during the SIR.

“This is uncomfortable for the ruling party too, as the chief minister had already reminded the BLOs that they were state government employees first and were deemed to be on deputation with the EC only during the polls. But it has become evident that the EC can take action before polls, too. So all those who will be engaged in the SIR will think twice before adhering to any instruction from the ruling party,” said a senior state government official.

Apart from those four officials, poll panel sources said, similar misconduct had been found in two other Assembly segments — Nandakumar in East Midnapore and Rajarhat-Gopalpur in North 24-Parganas. More than 100 fictitious names were found to have been inserted in the electoral rolls in these two Assembly segments in the past month or so.

“The CEO office in Calcutta sent a report to the Nirvachan Sadan on Monday. The EC will take appropriate action against the guilty soon. If more officers are suspended, it would be a blow to the ruling dispensation,” said a source.