The CPM has called for a march to the office of the chief electoral officer (CEO) of Bengal on Wednesday, demanding that no polls be conducted without a thorough rectification of the voters’ list and the inclusion of all “genuine voters”.
CPM state secretary Md Salim on Tuesday urged party supporters to take to the streets to “fight for the right to franchise”.
CPM leader Biman Bose also urged people to assemble at the CEO Manoj Kumar Agarwal’s office at 3pm on Wednesday to stage a demonstration to safeguard voting rights.
Bose alleged that under the guise of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the political narrative of the BJP had been “materialised into reality” by the Gyanesh Kumar-led Election Commission. He accused the poll body of doing the bidding of the BJP.
The CPM alleged that senior state government officials, including district magistrates, subdivisional officers and block development officers, had aided the commission in the process.
The protest comes in the backdrop of the publication of the preliminary final electoral roll in Bengal on February 28, following the SIR. Around 60 lakh voters were either excluded or remained under adjudication on grounds ranging from duplication and shifting of residence to alleged ineligibility.
The Opposition has maintained that many of the deleted names are of “genuine voters” and they were removed without adequate verification, raising concerns about possible disenfranchisement before the Assembly polls.
Seeking to build resistance, the Left Front has not only called for the march to the CEO’s office in Calcutta but has also urged its supporters to organise demonstrations on the office premises of DM, SDO and BDOs across the state on Wednesday.
Salim said the CPM would not accept any election conducted on what he described as a flawed voters’ list.
“It is almost absurd to conduct Assembly polls in the state without rectifying the voters’ list and enrolling all genuine voters. I will visit the CEO’s office tomorrow to issue this warning, and if necessary, I will remain seated there for as long as required to ensure voting rights for all and to fight for the people’s right to vote,” he said.
Addressing a CPM rally in Purulia on Monday, Salim said: “As long as the Leftists survive, no genuine voter will be allowed to be excluded from the voters’ list.”
Echoing similar concerns, former Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the commission should not announce the Assembly poll in Bengal without preparing a “foolproof” voters’ list.
Speaking to reporters in Berhampore on Tuesday, he said: “The voters’ list must be foolproof. It hardly matters if a few thousand more judicial officers are required to complete the task. But until the voters’ list becomes foolproof, no election should be announced in the state. Announcing polls at such a time would be equivalent to robbing the people of Bengal of their voting rights.”