Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: India held state elections this week in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, two of its most politically consequential states. Both contests were shadowed by allegations that Prime Minister Narendra Modi&#39;s federal government used its institutional power to tilt the outcome: through a televised address that opponents say broke campaign law, the mass deletion of voters from electoral rolls in West Bengal, and the forced removal of senior state officials by an election body critics say is no longer neutral. Five days before polls opened, Modi addressed the nation on Doordarshan and Sansad TV &ndash; &nbsp;India&#39;s state-owned broadcaster and parliament channel, both funded by the federal government. The address aired while the Model Code of Conduct was in effect. That code is a constitutionally recognized set of rules that bars incumbents from using government resources or platforms for political purposes once an election is called. Communist Party of India MP P. Sandosh Kumar filed a formal complaint with the Chief Election Commissioner, arguing the broadcast was &quot;political in nature&quot; and contained &quot;partisan assertions&quot; designed to sway voters, according to The Hindu. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called it an &quot;illegal campaign,&quot; as reported. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin warned that BJP campaign visits to his state were accompanied by the &quot;denial of funds&quot; for essential development, a reference to a persistent grievance among India&#39;s opposition-governed states that New Delhi withholds centrally allocated budgets as political leverage. Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut separately stated the BJP was using government funds to bus specific voter groups to polling stations, according to The Hindu. Tamil Nadu: Fund denial, election coupons In Tamil Nadu, where the incumbent Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party faces a BJP-backed opposition alliance, the interference allegations ran alongside a separate financial scandal. The Madras High Court began hearing cases on April 16 against candidates from both major alliances over the alleged distribution of coupons worth between ₹8,000 ($84.86) and ₹10,000 ($106), redeemable at designated commercial outlets. Prosecutors say this method was designed to evade cash-seizure checks. By April 22, federal authorities had seized more than ₹1,000 crore (approximately $106 million) in cash, liquor, and inducements across both Tamil Nadu and West Bengal combined, according to The Hindu. West Bengal: Voter deletions In West Bengal, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) &mdash; a regional party that has governed the state since 2011&ndash; faces its toughest election yet against Modi&#39;s BJP. The central controversy before votes were cast was the deletion of roughly 12% of the state&#39;s total registered voters from the electoral rolls. The Election Commission of India, the country&#39;s constitutionally &lsquo;independent&rsquo; elections body, carried out the revision. Of the voters removed, 34% were Muslim, according to the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore. This is well above the community&#39;s 27% share of the state&#39;s population. The TMC called the deletions a &quot;deliberate design&quot; to target its core supporters, per The Hindu. The BJP said the exercise was necessary to remove undocumented Bangladeshi migrants who had obtained fraudulent Indian identity documents through &quot;TMC-backed syndicates&quot;. India&#39;s Supreme Court ordered on April 17 that voters cleared by appellate tribunals before April 21 must be allowed to vote. Only 139 people were cleared in time for Phase I, as reported by local news outlets. Officials removed, forces deployed After the election was announced, the Election Commission transferred West Bengal&#39;s Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, Director General of Police, and Kolkata&#39;s top police officer along with 19 senior district police officers. This effectively removed the four most powerful state administrators from their positions. While the ECI has legal authority to transfer officials during elections, Banerjee called the moves &quot;political interference of the highest order&quot; and &quot;an assault on the Constitution,&quot; as reported by local media outlets, The West Bank CM stated the commission was &quot;campaigning for the BJP.&quot; Senior constitutional lawyer Kapil Sibal also said the commissioner&#39;s &quot;vocation&quot; appeared to be ensuring a BJP victory, as reported by The Hindu. On April 21, the TMC stated that federal paramilitary troops (deployed under ECI orders and operating outside state government control) used &quot;disproportionate criminal force&quot; against residents in Nandigram, the home constituency of BJP&#39;s state opposition leader. The ECI denied the claim. According to the Association for Democratic Reforms, 23% of West Bengal&#39;s candidates had declared criminal cases, and constituencies where multiple candidates carry criminal records rose 17% from the previous election. Tamil Nadu voted April 23. West Bengal&#39;s second phase is April 29. Results are due May 4.

Voters queue up to cast their votes outside a polling station during the West Bengal Legislative Assembly elections in Berhampore, Murshidabad district, on April 23, 2026. (AFP)

India

India’s elections in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal face allegations of interference, voter deletions and campaign violations, with government, parties and election officials trading accusations.

Modi broadcast, purged voter rolls shadow India's state elections

ISLAMABAD: India&#39;s Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi said the country&rsquo;s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was compromised through the Epstein files on Saturday, accusing him of signing deals that surrendered India&#39;s energy security, farming sector and data to foreign interests. The Indian Opposition Leader delivered his sharpest attack on the Indian prime minister yet as he campaigned across Tamil Nadu ahead of the state&#39;s April 23 assembly election, with his speeches shared on Indian National Congress&#39;s official YouTube channel.&nbsp; &quot;He controls him through the Epstein files,&quot; Rahul Gandhi told a rally in Ranipet, referring to US President Donald Trump&#39;s alleged&nbsp;leverage over Modi. &quot;He controls him because he knows Narendra Modi&#39;s financial system.&quot; &quot;He [Modi] signed a deal between India and the United States that sold our country out,&quot; Rahul&nbsp;Gandhi told the crowd. &quot;He handed out our energy security. He gave away our data. He sold our farmers. He sold our small and medium industry.&quot; The 55-year-old, who is the&nbsp;parliamentary face of the opposition Congress party, addressed rallies in Ponneri, Ranipet and Thuraiyur across Tamil Nadu on Saturday. He framed the Epstein claim within a broader argument: that Modi, having been compromised at the national level, now seeks to impose the same model of externally controlled, proxy governance on Tamil Nadu through his alliance with the regional AIADMK party. &quot;The same way Modi has been compromised, they want a compromised chief minister to run Tamil Nadu,&quot; he said at Ponneri. Rahul also pointed to Modi&#39;s demeanor in Parliament on Friday as evidence of a leader operating under pressure. &quot;Yesterday you saw the face of Prime Minister Modi &mdash; completely lacking confidence,&quot; he said at Ranipet. &quot;He could not even face the opposition. He was sitting sideways.&quot; The parliamentary session Rahul referenced saw the opposition defeat a government bill it said disguised a redrawing of India&#39;s electoral map (a process known as delimitation) behind the cover of women&#39;s political representation. &quot;Hidden behind that bill was a diabolical idea,&quot; he said at Ranipet. &quot;They wanted to change the number of seats that each state gets. They wanted to weaken the South Indian states, the North Eastern states and the smaller states.&quot; He called the attempt &quot;an anti-national act&quot; and said the Opposition &quot;stood like a rock&quot; to defeat it. Tamil Nadu, a state of roughly 70 million people on India&#39;s southeastern tip, votes on April 23 in a single-phase election across all 234 assembly constituencies, according to the Election Commission of India. Votes will be counted on May 4. There are 56.7 million registered voters, including 28.9 million women and 27.7 million men, as per the Chief Electoral Officer of Tamil Nadu. The BJP, which dominates India&#39;s national politics under Modi, has historically failed to win significant ground in Tamil Nadu. It has allied this cycle with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), a Dravidian regional party rooted in Tamil identity, socialism and secularism. Gandhi&#39;s Congress is allied with the rival Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which governs the state under Chief Minister M.K. Stalin. Rahul Gandhi was unsparing on the AIADMK alliance. &quot;The BJP has hollowed out and destroyed the AIADMK,&quot; he said at Ponneri. &quot;There is nothing known as the AIADMK. It has been eaten up from the inside by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah [Indian Home Affairs Minister]. It is a hollow shell.&quot; He told AIADMK workers directly that their party&#39;s leadership had been &quot;fully captured&quot; and was now functioning as an instrument for BJP to enter Tamil Nadu. He said the BJP&#39;s agenda was an assault on Tamil language and identity. &quot;They want to attack Tamil language, they want to distort Tamil history, they want to twist Tamil culture,&quot; he said. &quot;The BJP and RSS are ignorant people. They do not understand who the Tamil people are.&quot; He accused the central government of withholding $216 million in education funds owed to Tamil Nadu and of blocking construction of a federal medical institute in Madurai. The Indian Opposition Leader closed with a cultural pledge that drew the loudest response of the rally. &quot;There is no force on this planet that can touch Tamil Nadu or its language,&quot; he told the Ponneri crowd, according to the Indian National Congress&#39;s official Facebook post. The DMK-Congress alliance outlined six economic guarantees: ₹2,000 ($21.6) per month to every woman in the state; equal amounts for senior citizens and people with disabilities; ₹2,000 ($21.6) monthly college scholarships; ₹2,500 ($27) per month in food security transfers; free property registration for first-time women buyers; and a commitment to fill all government vacancies within 300 days. Modi held his own rally in Coimbatore on Saturday, as reported by The Hindu.

Indian Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi addressing the public at a rally in Ranipet on April 18, 2026, ahead of the Tamil Nadu assembly election. (Indian National Congress/YouTube)

Rahul Gandhi stated Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was compromised via Epstein files and accused him of selling national assets, as he campaigned in the southern state of Tamil Nadu ahead of a closely contested state election.

Articles tagged with "Tamil Nadu assembly election 2026"

Modi broadcast, purged voter rolls shadow India's state elections

Rahul Gandhi: Modi compromised by Epstein files, sold India out