The CPM on Tuesday asserted that the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being carried out by the Election Commission of India had no legal mandate to examine the citizenship of voters and warned that it would move court if anybody was disenfranchised.

The party leadership reiterated its position while interacting with members of the Matua community during a visit to Thakurnagar as part of the CPM’s statewide Bangla Bachao Yatra, which will conclude at Kamarhati on Wednesday.

The outreach came amid growing anxiety among a large section of the Matua population — estimated by CPM leaders to be around one crore —who fear deletion of their names from the voters’ list because of the EC's reported reliance on the 2002 electoral roll as a benchmark and the absence of parental or personal linkage documents among many voters.

Carrying forward the march, which the CPM says is aimed at “saving Bengal and its people from the misrule and opportunistic politics” of the Trinamool Congress and the BJP, the party leadership has sought to re-establish contact with the Matuas, once considered a strong support base of the Left.

Senior CPM leaders, including state secretary Md Salim, former MP Sujan Chakraborty and central committee member Minakshi Mukherjee, participated in the programme and said the party was prepared for legal action once the extent of deletions became clear.

Speaking to reporters, Minakshi reminded the EC that its role was confined to scrutiny of the voters’ list and safeguarding genuine voters, not determining citizenship through the SIR process.

“SIR has no scope to examine the citizenship of voters. Under the Representation of the People Act, a person who has attained the age of 18 needs only a limited set of documents to be enrolled as a voter. Then how can the EC now seek dozens of documents from lakhs of Matuas who were enrolled on that basis and have voted in several elections?” she said.

Accusing the BJP and Trinamool of exploiting the community for electoral gains, she added: “The Matua community was used as a ladder to achieve power. Once their objectives were achieved, the community was abandoned.”

Addressing a public meeting at Gaighata, Salim said the CPM would stand by the Matua community and others who had exercised their franchise for years but faced the threat of deletion after the SIR exercise.

“Matuas are an inseparable part of Bengal’s culture, and we cannot remain silent if many of them are excluded from the voters’ list. The so-called religious identity card issued by BJP MP Shantanu Thakur has proved to be of no use, as has been made clear by the Supreme Court of India. It appears the BJP has waged a war against the poor and downtrodden. We have seen how the poor are treated in Bihar, Odisha, and Assam. The Matuas are also poor people, and we will fight to protect their rights,” Salim said.

Seeking to counter what he described as the divisive agenda of the BJP and Trinamool, Salim recalled the past association between the Left and the Matua community.

“The Matuas were once associated with the Left. First, the Trinamool Congress built proximity with the Thakurbari through dole politics, and later the BJP entered the scene, eventually dividing the Thakurbari and the followers of Shri Harichand and Guruchand Thakur,” he said.

Echoing similar concerns, Chakraborty said no authority sitting in Delhi had the right to determine the community’s entitlement to universal franchise. “People of the Matua community have been exercising their democratic rights for years. They are human beings and voters here. Universal franchise cannot be determined by people sitting in Delhi. None can rob the Matuas of their voting rights, as they have already cast their votes,” he said.

Chakraborty added that if the names were dropped, the affected voters should unite and assured them that the CPM would take the matter to court to secure their rights.

As part of the programme at Gaighata, CPM leaders also visited the temple of Shri Harichand and Guruchand Thakur and the abode of community matriarch Binapani Devi, offering floral tributes.

Responding to questions on whether the outreach was an attempt to woo the Matua community ahead of next year’s Assembly elections, Salim said: “The Matuas were with the CPM in the past. It was Trinamool and the BJP that misled them.”

Both the BJP and Trinamool factions of the All India Matua Mahasangha, led by Mamatabala Thakur and Shantanu Thakur, respectively, claimed that the community had severed ties with the CPM long ago. “They realised their mistake of once supporting the CPM, and there is no question of looking back,” a Trinamool leader said.