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TMC MP Demands Transparency on Election Commission’s AI Tool for Bengal Voter Roll Revision

The challenge focuses on unanswered questions about vendor identity, bias audits, data handling plus the need for AI in routine duplicate checks.

Overview

  • Election Commission officials say an AI-based system will be used during the Special Intensive Revision of West Bengal’s electoral rolls to flag fake or deceased entries.
  • The tool is described as analyzing facial similarities across voter photographs to identify people registered at multiple addresses.
  • TMC MP Saket Gokhale says no public information exists on the app’s developer, vendor, code or testing, calling the system “mysterious.”
  • He seeks proof of auditing for algorithmic bias and questions why AI is needed for duplicate detection that he argues simpler software can handle.
  • Gokhale cites Mamata Banerjee’s letter flagging the hiring of 1,000 data-entry operators and 50 software developers, recalls a 2019 vendor controversy involving alleged BJP links, and says the SIR is proceeding without transparency.