Aadhaar Cards Found Dumped in Bengal Pond Spark Political Row Amid Voter Roll Revision

A tense political standoff has emerged in West Bengal after hundreds of Aadhaar cards were discovered dumped in a pond in Burdwan district, coinciding with the state’s ongoing Special Intensified Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The discovery has raised concerns over the integrity of the voter-list verification process and triggered a full police investigation.

Residents of Lalitpur village made the startling find during routine pond cleaning on Wednesday. Workers recovered a large sack from the water, and upon opening it, found it packed with Aadhaar cards belonging to individuals from nearby Hamidpur and Pila. Local residents immediately alerted authorities, worried that the discarded documents could signal manipulation or misuse of identity details during the voter-roll revision.

Police officials have since seized the Aadhaar cards and initiated an inquiry to determine their origin, authenticity and possible links to identity fraud. Investigators are now checking whether the cards were genuine, duplicated, forged, or part of an organised attempt to manipulate the electoral database.

The timing of the discovery has injected a political edge into the incident. BJP leaders in the district quickly connected the dumping of the Aadhaar cards with the SIR process that began this week. The party argued that such a large volume of discarded identity documents points to deliberate tampering. Local leaders demanded transparency from the administration and questioned how sensitive identification material could be disposed of in such a manner.

Trinamool Congress leaders, meanwhile, pushed back against the accusations. MLA Tapan Chatterjee, who visited the pond, said the cards could be old duplicates that were previously created illegally for a fee. He suggested that the dumping may not be linked to the voter-roll revision at all. At the same time, he accused the BJP of using the incident to provoke mistrust in the revision exercise and cause panic among citizens.

The SIR process—currently underway across 12 states and Union Territories—is meant to update, correct and verify voter details ahead of upcoming elections. In West Bengal, however, the exercise has already become a volatile political issue, with both major parties accusing each other of manipulating the narrative for electoral advantage.

With police now verifying each recovered Aadhaar card and tracing its possible journey into the sack, the investigation is expected to determine whether the incident resulted from administrative negligence, deliberate malpractice or an attempt at identity fraud. The outcome will likely have implications for voter-roll confidence in a state known for its fiercely contested political environment.

The discovery has prompted renewed calls for tighter safeguards around sensitive identity documents and for greater transparency in the electoral revision process as West Bengal prepares for another high-stakes political season.