New Delhi, March 31 The Trinamool Congress on Tuesday alleged an "attempt to loot votes" in West Bengal ahead of the assembly polls, and claimed that a large number of Form 6 were being submitted in the state.
Addressing a press conference here, TMC Rajya Sabha deputy leader Sagarika Ghose referred to a letter written by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and said democracy is under "severe threat."
"We are here to expose a systematic assault on democracy in Bengal and a systematic attempt to loot votes in Bengal. Let me say this clearly. Yesterday, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee visited the CEO's office and the CM was forced to write to the CEC," Ghose said.
"When a sitting chief minister has to write to the election commission about fraud inside its own office, democracy is already under severe threat. This is not a mistake, it's a planned operation," she alleged.
Ghose said that between 11 am and 6 pm on Monday, nearly 30,000 Form 6 applications were submitted in bulk at the CEO's office.
"The law is clear, no individual can submit more than 50 applications," she said.
"When we asked for CCTV footage, they said they don't know where the cameras are. This is not negligence, it's a cover-up," she alleged.
Ghose also alleged that 400 forms were found with a man in Medinipur.
"This happened when Suvendu Adhikari was coming out of the CEO's office. Now this is, this is not just unconstitutional, not just illegal, it is contempt of court," she said.
In a strongly-worded letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Tuesday, the TMC supremo accused the BJP of trying to illegally include voters from outside West Bengal in bulk through Form 6.
Banerjee shot the letter in less than 24 hours after Abhishek Banerjee alleged that nearly 30,000 Form 6 were submitted by the BJP in a day to make residents of other states voters of West Bengal.
Abhishek Banerjee said the party had "credible information that about 30,000 Form 6 were submitted to the CEO's office in six to seven hours" on Monday.