Friday, January 13 2006 17:16 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: Days after the West Bengal's Left Front chairman and party's politburo member Biman Bose caused ripples in political circles by admitting that bogus voters existed in state's electoral rolls, the Communist Party of India (CPI) Marxist (M) patriarch Jyoti Basu sought to downplay the issue saying that opposition allegation against the CPI(M)'s vote machinery had no basis.

"Bogus voters means what? I find it in the newspapers. Some people are dead but their names still exist in the electoral rolls. The names of some people who have changed their residences where they used to live also figure in the rolls. This is not legitimate. This cannot go on", the CPI(M) Politburo member told reporters after attending the party's weekly state secretariat meeting here.

Basu's comment comes amid the ongoing visit to the state by an election commission team of 19 observers in different districts to oversee the revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal ahead of the assembly polls.

The CPI(M) leader however would not say anything whether the state administration should have detected the existence of bogus voters.

"The Election Commission observers are presently visiting the state. I have heard that they would make a second round of visit to the state", he said.

Several names of fake voters-those either missing or dead have been detected by the EC observers.

Reports said there were large number of bogus ration cards issued in border districts based on which voting rights had been secured.