The differences between the major Left Front partner, the CPI(M), and the state election department have also opened up the issue. While a tight-lipped state election department did nothing but release cold figures about aspiring applicants in the bordering districts, the CPI(M) has already refused to accept that the infiltration could be a factor contributing to the increase. The state election department has already spotted areas in the border districts where the increase is almost 19.67 per cent. It is also not that the CPI(M) is not bothered over the increase in the number of voters.

For the first time during the Left Front's 22-year rule, when the party's two Politburo members, Anil Biswas and Biman Bose, met Chief Electoral Officer Jahwar Sircar, they complained about ``various irregularities in the process ofrevision of the voters' list''. The CPI(M) blamed the ``the communal and fascist forces for trying to include the bogus and under-age voters in the final list.'' But it ruled out the possibility of the that Bangladeshi infiltrators .

Chief Electoral Officer Jahwaar Sircar said: ``We have to take this rise very seriously and gear up our machinery during the process of inquiry and screening which will go on till 21 of this month.'' ``We have rather a short time as the final list has to be prepared by July 21.''