In a disturbing turn of events, recent reports suggest that illegal Bangladeshi immigrants residing in West Bengal have been availing benefits from the Mamata Banerjee government’s flagship welfare scheme, Lakshmi Bhandar, triggering serious questions about the misuse of taxpayer money. As fear of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), a voter-list cleanup exercise, spreads among undocumented residents, many are reportedly fleeing back across the border. The scandal reveals a brazen political strategy and raises urgent demands for a thorough investigation into how West Bengal’s Rs 48,000 crore Lakshmi Bhandar fund may have been diverted to ineligible, non-citizen claimants.
Mamata Game: Welfare or vote-bank politics?
Since coming to power, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) has projected Lakshmi Bhandar as a scheme for women’s empowerment—meant to provide monthly financial assistance to women heads of households. However, over the years, the scheme has effectively transformed into a politically-driven mechanism designed to secure a dependable vote bank. The numbers themselves reflect the scale of this political engineering: nearly 1.6 crore women have been enrolled, and the annual expenditure has expanded to tens of thousands of crores, creating a massive financial outflow that conveniently aligns with electoral interests rather than genuine social welfare.
In light of the SIR verification, many illegal immigrants are now reportedly abandoning their homes, suggesting they may have been beneficiaries of Lakshmi Bhandar without lawful residency.
The Special Intensive Revision (SIR), carried out by the Election Commission, is currently underway in West Bengal. Its mandate: house-to-house enumeration, scrutiny of identification documents, and rigorous voter-roll verification. Fears have rippled through undocumented communities, especially illegal Bangladeshi migrants, who worry that the SIR will expose their lack of legal status. In the past fortnight alone, BSF sources report that up to 1,500 undocumented Bangladeshis have fled back to Bangladesh via a single border post.
The SIR is not just a bureaucratic exercise, but a powerful instrument to dismantle a vote-bank built on questionable citizenship claims. As BJP leader Amit Malviya has pointed out, the mass flight may be a sign that “Mamata Banerjee’s carefully nurtured vote bank is collapsing.”
Across various parts of West Bengal, Bangladeshis who had entered India illegally are now fleeing out of fear of the SIR process. Many of them, especially women, have admitted that they were receiving money under the Lakshmi Bhandar scheme. We demand an immediate investigation… pic.twitter.com/WZv3625zkf
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) November 19, 2025
The scale of alleged fraud is alarming. Reports claim many illegal Bangladeshi nationals in West Bengal hold Aadhaar cards, voter IDs, ration cards, even land ownership. These are often procured using forged or fraudulent certificates: for instance, over 3,500 fake birth certificates were reportedly issued to Bangladeshi nationals in Pathankhali Gram Panchayat, South 24 Parganas.
How much of the Rs 48,000 crore went to illegals?
This raises the most pressing question: how much of the ₹48,000 crore (approx.) that the state has allocated to Lakshmi Bhandar actually ended up in the hands of illegal immigrants? If even a fraction of that sum was siphoned off to non-citizens, it amounts to a massive betrayal of genuine beneficiaries and taxpayers. The lack of rigorous document verification in the enrollment process has enabled systematic fraud, and only a full, transparent audit can expose the extent of the leak.
Mamata Banerjee’s welfare rhetoric on Lakshmi Bhandar may well have masked a ruthless vote-bank strategy built on the backs of illegal migrants. The SIR crackdown is now unravelling that network, but the real reckoning will come only if there is transparency, accountability, and justice. The state cannot tolerate a system where welfare money meant for vulnerable women is diverted to foreign nationals. It is time to reclaim Lakshmi Bhandar’s integrity, and ensure that West Bengal’s welfare schemes truly benefit legitimate citizens.
Off late, Bihar became the first state to implement the SIR exercise, successfully identifying and removing around 65 lakh fraudulent voter entries. The initiative demonstrated how meticulous enumeration can prevent electoral fraud and strengthen democracy. West Bengal now aims to replicate this success by ensuring that every eligible voter is accurately listed. Citizens are urged to carefully submit their forms and cooperate with BLOs to ensure a smooth process.
