The Trinamool Congress on Friday produced another example of what it called “Silent Invisible Rigging”, claiming names of voters have disappeared from the electoral booths in North 24-Parganas Basirhat, even as the website of the West Bengal chief electoral officer remained erratic, throwing up error messages for many users.

The SIlent Invisible Rigging is a play on the abbreviation SIR, which stands for the special electoral revision of voter lists that the Election Commission of India has undertaken in several poll-bound states except Assam.

“The moment SIR was announced, the game began, and the picture is ugly and unmistakable. Before the exercise has even properly rolled out, voters are disappearing from rolls in Natabari, Mathabhanga (both in Cooch Behar), Ashoknagar and now Basirhat,” the Trinamool claimed in a post on X on Friday morning.

The party claimed that in one booth in Basirhat an online search drew a blank for the names of voters from serial number 859 to 892.

“Names present in 2002 have simply vanished today. This reeks of a deliberate, state-directed operation to erase voters. SIR as Abhishek Banerjee pointed out is being used as a cover for Silent Invisible Rigging,” the party said.

The SIR process in Bengal rolled out from Tuesday. As announced by chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, from November 4 to December 4 the booth level officers (BLOs) will go door to door with the partially printed enumeration forms matching and linking the voters to the voters list from 2002-2004.

The last time such an exercise was carried out in Bengal was in 2002.

The voters list from 2002 has been uploaded in the state chief electoral officer’s website, though many electors have complained that they have not been able to access the list as the website was not working on their devices.

“I tried to check whether we still exist on the electoral roll. As I searched for it the HTTPS link that came up was probably a fraudulent one,” a voter from Jadavpur constituency said.

The Telegraph Online encountered the same problem. We have earlier reported, both in print and online, how the website has been erratic since the SIR was announced.

On Friday morning, the message the website (ceowestbengal.nic.in) threw up, both on mobile and laptop was this: “Your connection is not private. Attackers might be trying to steal your information from ceowestbengal.nic.in (for example, passwords, messages or credit cards). Learn more about this warning.”

The Telegraph Online’s calls to the chief electoral officer on Friday afternoon went unanswered.

The Election Commission has launched a helpline, 1800-11-1950, to provide clarifications to voters. On calling, an automated voice said all representatives were busy and that voters could download the EC’s app.

Some voters who did manage to access the website are also facing problems finding their names on the list as it was prepared before the delimitation exercise. Names of some of the constituencies and also the polling booths have changed.

On Thursday, former Rajya Sabha MP and Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh had flagged the issue of what his party called disappearing voters.

“In one area, the 2002 list had 717 voters; now it shows just 140. All voters couldn’t have died together. In several booths, hundreds of names have vanished without any official explanation,” Ghosh said.

Ghosh had said in one booth of Ashoknagar Assembly constituency’s Guma-I gram panchayat, there are no voters now though it had 900 voters in 2002.

Since the SIR rolled out in Bengal, two people have died by suicide while a third survived an attempt, and the Trinamool has blamed the BJP’s “politics of fear”.

“The self-styled Jonobirodhi Zamindars in Delhi, aided by a pliant machinery, are attempting industrial-scale voters cleansing under the guise of revision,” the Trinamool said. “Bengal will not stand by as its people are methodically silenced. The right to vote is not a favour; it is a constitutional guarantee.”