The Left Front leaders on Thursday ended their 24-hour dharna outside the Election Commission office in Kolkata after they met state Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal over the alleged discrepancies in Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state.
After the meeting, veteran CPI(M) leader Biman Bose said that the Left Front delegation told the CEO that Assembly elections in the state won’t be allowed till the Election Commission resolves over 60 lakh adjudication cases of voters that are currently being looked into by judicial officers of three states – West Bengal, Odisha, and Jharkhand.
“We are now lifting our dharna, but our movement will continue. If a single genuine voter is left out of the final electoral list, we will not allow Assembly elections to be held in West Bengal,” said Bose, the chairperson of the Left Front.
On Wednesday, the Left Front leaders had marched to the office of the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to submit their deputation to the state CEO on the SIR exercise. After the CEO, Agarwal, did not meet the Left Front delegation, the latter sat on a night-long dharna outside the CEO’s office.
The dharna was being led by 85-year-old senior Biman Bose, Md Salim, and Sujan Chakraborty, among others.
“We came here to give a deputation to the CEO of West Bengal. It is the tradition in a democratic framework. But the police stopped us. We abide by democratic rules, and we are gathered here to protest. We are fighting against the attempt to divide the society in terms of religion and colours,” Bose had said.
Accusing the police of trying to forcibly remove them, Salim had said, “We know when (Chief Minister) Mamata Banerjee will do dharna, this same police will stand beside her with folded hands. However, they are now trying to stop us. We will not stop. Our protest will continue.”
He was referring to the chief minister’s dharna against the SIR at Metro Channel in Esplanade from Friday.
The Left leaders alleged that the Election Commission (EC), at the behest of the BJP and RSS, was deliberately removing the names of Muslims, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes and women voters from the electoral roll during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
“The Election Commission is executing this plan on the orders of the BJP. The reality is that in this state, the District Magistrates, SDOs, and BDOs are also helping them. We are all watching this,” Salim had alleged.
“The Electoral system itself is being destroyed. The Election Commission has done this SIR, as per the directions of the BJP and RSS. The real criteria based on Assembly seats has been religion and region, as the RSS wanted. People’s voting rights have been taken away by the TMC with weapons, and RSS is doing the same with the help of the Election Commission,” he had added.
The Left’s protest march to the CEO’s office was backed by the Samajwadi Party and other smaller parties in the state.
Mostari Banu from Murshidabad district, who had filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the SIR, also took part in the dharna.
Siddiqui, Kabir also meet CEO
Indian Secular Front (ISF) leader Naushad Siddiqui on Thursday met CEO Manoj Agarwal, demanding completion of judicial review of the pending 60 lakh cases of adjudication. “We urged the CEO to dispose of all adjudication cases as early as possible,” Siddiqui said after meeting the CEO.
ISF is an ally of the Left Front.
Later, suspended TMC MLA Humayun Kabir, who recently formed a new political outfit, Janata Unnayan Party, also met the CEO, demanding early disposal of adjudication cases.