Hundreds of Aadhaar cards found dumped in pond spark political row in West Bengal
Burdwan, West Bengal: A political controversy has erupted in West Bengal after hundreds of Aadhaar cards were discovered dumped in a pond in Burdwan district, coinciding with the ongoing Special Intensified Revision (SIR) of the state’s electoral rolls.
The discovery was made on Wednesday during routine cleaning of a pond in Lalitpur village, when residents found a heavy sack floating in the water. On inspection, it was found to contain hundreds of Aadhaar cards. According to police sources, most of the addresses on the cards belong to residents of the nearby Hamidpur and Pila localities.
Local authorities have ruled out the possibility that the cards were discarded accidentally, suggesting instead that the act was deliberate. All the recovered cards have been seized, and police have launched an investigation to trace their origin and determine how they ended up in the pond. Officers are now verifying the authenticity of the documents and questioning residents in the surrounding area.
The incident has quickly snowballed into a political face-off between the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). BJP leaders have alleged foul play, linking the discovery to the ongoing SIR process.
According to a report by India Today, local BJP leader Debabrata Mandal said, “This recovery of Aadhaar cards, right after the SIR process has begun, certainly points to a deeper mystery. The party leadership would be informed.” The BJP’s West Bengal unit also raised the issue on social media, suggesting that the incident casts doubt on the transparency of the voter list revision.
The party has demanded an explanation from the state government and greater transparency in the electoral roll update.
Trinamool MLA Tapan Chatterjee, who visited the site, offered a different explanation.
“We do not know who threw these Aadhaar cards here,” he said.
“They might be duplicate cards previously created for a fee before authorities attempted to stop the practice.”
However, he also accused the BJP of attempting to politicise the SIR process and create unnecessary panic.
Similar incident near BDO office in Jalpaiguri
In a separate incident, a large number of voter ID cards were found scattered in a wooded area near the Block Development Officer’s (BDO) office in Rajganj, Jalpaiguri district. The discovery triggered public outrage, with locals demanding to know how the identity cards ended up in the open.
Joint BDO Sourav Kanti Mondal later clarified that the recovered cards were old voter IDs surrendered over the past five to six years after holders received updated ones. He explained that the cards had been stored at the office but were accidentally displaced during an emergency operation to remove a venomous snake from the premises. Mondal added that all the cards had since been retrieved and secured.
The Special Intensified Revision, aimed at updating and verifying voter rolls, is currently being conducted across 12 states and Union Territories from November 4 to 4 December 4.