The CPM on Monday said that taking a cue from what happened in Bihar, Left parties would form booth-level voluntary teams across Bengal to help voters as and when the Election Commission rolls out the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in the state.
“We are seeing what is happening in Bihar. The EC was flouting the Constitution and laws of the land. The Supreme Court had to step in to rein in the poll panel.... There are attempts to create panic among voters. Therefore, we have decided that the Left parties will form voluntary teams — like the Red Volunteers of the Covid days — to help people protect their right to vote,” CPM state secretary Md Salim said.
The volunteers will create awareness about SIR, help voters collect the right documents to protect their voting rights and ensure that Indian citizens are not disenfranchised.
“The team of volunteers will ensure that in keeping with our demand the EC identifies dead and bogus voters to cleanse the electoral rolls of anomalies. The EC has failed in its duty to cleanse the electoral rolls and now it is creating panic among voters that reeks of attempts to disenfranchise them. We will not let that happen,” Salim added.
The CPM leader said that the poor, vulnerable and undocumented people were the worst victims of the EC’s drive that had been launched to benefit the ruling party.
Asked about the kind of help these volunteers would provide voters, Salim said the EC should first spell out the rules and regulation and the teams would act accordingly to protect the voting rights of every citizen.
“Our experience from Bihar and Assam is that the EC acts to favour the ruling party. In Bengal, the state election commission did the same thing during panchayat and civic body polls...When Tamanna Khatun was killed (during the Kaliganj bypoll), poll officials remained mum. To ensure that names of genuine voters are not deleted, we will provide legal and documentation support,” Salim said.
He accused the Trinamool Congress of minting fake documents. “Similarly, BJP leaders have created new documents to dupe voters,” he added, referring to the Matua ID cards distributed by the BJP MP Shantanu Thakur.
