Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee has intensified his attack on the Election Commission of India, sharing screenshots purportedly from a WhatsApp group of election observers and linking them to his allegation that around 30 lakh names were deleted from West Bengal’s electoral rolls.

In a post on X, Banerjee said the screenshots, which he claimed date back to April, raise “serious questions” over the conduct of the electoral-roll revision exercise.

He alleged that the material points towards a larger conspiracy behind the deletion of voter names and said the issue ‘cannot be brushed aside’ or answered with silence.

The screenshots shared by Banerjee show messages apparently exchanged in a WhatsApp group titled ‘GE- WBLA 2026 Phase 2 Observers’.

One participant, identified as a General Observer from Chunchura, questions the instructions being issued to observers during the election process.

‘We, General Observers, don’t understand one thing,’ the message begins, before contrasting instructions allegedly given to observers in Delhi with those being followed in West Bengal.

The participant says observers were initially told to ‘observe and don’t do anything’, but were later asked to undertake a much wider range of activities.

The message ends with a request for clarification from the Election Commission.

A subsequent message from the same participant reads, ‘I feel it is cheating by @ ECI.’

Another exchange refers to instructions allegedly given to observers regarding their interaction with the Chief Electoral Officer.

The message claims that observers had been told in Delhi that they were ‘not supposed to interact with CEO’, while alleging that the CEO was subsequently holding meetings with observers.

The screenshots also contain a message questioning the basis on which the Election Commission had allegedly approved such meetings.

The participant refers to the CEO as an officer of the state government and cites previous experience of having served as a CEO in Himachal Pradesh.

In another message, the participant appears to demand the removal of the CEO, saying, ‘I demand removal of CEO immediately,’ and calling for a ‘neutral CEO’.

The messages, however, are screenshots shared by Banerjee and their authenticity, context, and complete chain of communication have not been independently established from the material made public.

The screenshots also do not by themselves establish that electoral-roll deletions were part of a conspiracy.

Banerjee's post comes against the backdrop of a major controversy over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal and fresh scrutiny of the Election Commission's internal functioning.

An Indian Express investigation published this week reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally raised objections at least 14 times over 10 months regarding decisions and orders linked to electoral-roll management.

The reported objections covered issues including voter registration, deletions and the handling of electoral-roll data.

The Election Commission has rejected the suggestion that these objections indicate a breakdown in its functioning.

It has maintained that the reported observations were part of internal deliberations and that decisions of the three-member Commission, including those concerning SIR, were ultimately unanimous.

The electoral-roll figures have added another dimension to the controversy.

The EC recently told the Supreme Court that 27.16 lakh voters were deleted during the SIR process after scrutiny of electors placed under adjudication.

Of these, 22.21 lakh have appealed against their exclusion. The Commission said a total of 38.31 lakh appeals had been filed, including petitions seeking deletion of names that had been included.

The figures are distinct from Banerjee's political claim of a deliberate deletion of 30 lakh voters to benefit the BJP. That allegation has not been independently established.

The EC has attributed deletions to categories including deceased, shifted, absent and duplicate voters, while the political Opposition has questioned the process and its consequences.

Banerjee has nevertheless sought to connect the observers' messages with the wider questions being raised about the functioning of the poll panel.

In his X post, he directly named Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Chief Justice of India, saying both faced questions that needed to be answered before the public.

His latest intervention comes a day after he separately alleged that 30 lakh voter names had been deliberately deleted from Bengal's electoral rolls to benefit the BJP, and demanded action against Kumar.

Those allegations have also been rejected by the Election Commission, which has defended the SIR process and its decisions.

For now, the screenshots have added another layer to an already contentious electoral-roll dispute.

Whether the WhatsApp exchanges accurately reflect official instructions, who issued the instructions referred to in them, and whether they have any connection to the deletion of voter names are questions that require verification from the concerned observers, election authorities, and official records.