Mayor Firhad Hakim and the councillors of Kolkata Municipal Corporation are soon to hit the ground scrutinising the voters’ list in various wards of the KMC.

The decision comes a day after chief minister Mamata Banerjee raised concerns over fake voters from other states in the electoral rolls. According to the mayor, the councillors have been instructed to do a scrutiny of how many fake voters and dead voters are there in every part. A thorough examination of the number of voters that do not have an existence in the particular part number would also be carried out. The data collected on the ground would later be scrutinised and matched with the EPIC numbers.

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Ruling out any intentions of communal biasness, the state urban development and municipal affairs department minister pointed out that the initiative has been taken only to ensure that democracy is not hijacked by the BJP. “After the voter list scrutiny we will sit and check the EPIC number to check how many names are there against one EPIC number.” said the minister. The mayor also informed about electoral roll manipulation in the Rashbehari constituency MLA, Debasish Kumar’s ward.

Notably, speaking during the ruling party’s state conference yesterday, Miss Banerjee had alleged the BJP of using fake voters in Delhi, Haryana and Maharashtra. Holding a sheaf of papers in her hand during a meeting with the party workers at Netaji Indoor Stadium yesterday, the CM had alleged manipulation of electoral rolls ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls to be held next year. The Trinamul Congress chief also warned to stage a dharna in front of the election commission office, if the necessary corrections were not done at the earliest.