CPM legal team to help voters with name deletions post-SIR at tribunals: Md Salim
Telegraph | 28 March 2026
The CPM on Thursday said it formed teams of lawyers and Red Volunteers to help genuine voters whose names have been struck off poll rolls.
The Election Commission has set up 19 tribunals across Bengal to deal with appeals of deleted voters.
“People are helpless, and we pledge to stand by them. At all 19 tribunals, teams of Left-leaning lawyers and Red Volunteers have been formed to provide legal help to voters. We will share phone numbers of legal activists and volunteers on social media platforms so that no one has to incur extra cost to protect their right to vote,” CPM state secretary Md Salim said.
As judicial officers are disposing of 60.06 lakh under-adjudication cases and the first supplementary voter list has been published, to be followed by more, voters whose names are getting deleted have the opportunity to challenge the decision before tribunals set up on the Supreme Court’s directive.
Salim alleged that the special intensive revision (SIR) of poll rolls in Bengal was being carried out in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “demographic mission”.
Salim claimed that the exercise has been conducted in a “religion- and region-specific manner” according to the prescription of the RSS-BJP combine, with the EC being reduced to a “tool” rather than acting as the guarantor of citizens’ voting rights.
The party alleged large-scale discrepancies in the voter list and repeated its demand of “no vote without a complete voter list”.
Calling for a statewide protest on March 30 and 31, the CPM urged party candidates, voters and those still struggling to get their names enrolled take to the streets, cutting across political affiliation, to defend what it termed as the “last line of democratic protection”.
“Protection of voting rights has now become a bigger issue. I appeal to all to join the protest to protect voting rights,” Salim said.
Accusing the BJP-RSS combine of attempting to destabilise the foundational principles of parliamentary democracy through multiple means, including the SIR, Salim alleged that the revision of the voter list was driven by a predetermined political design.
“It is a demographic mission of Narendra Modi, a part of the divisive propaganda of the RSS — raising issues like infiltration, the Rohingya and jihadis to mislead people. It is unfortunate that the Election Commission has become a part of this mission,” he said.
“The EC has absolutely messed up the entire electoral roll, as we had apprehended. Every day, new instructions are being issued, and the process is being run according to RSS prescriptions...,” he added.
Referring to the deployment of judicial officers from various states in the scrutiny process, Salim said: “It appears that officials of the judiciary will decide people’s voting rights, whereas it is actually the duty of the administration to prepare the voter list.”
Pulling up alleged lapses by the Mamata Banerjee government, he said: “It was necessary to bring legislation in the Assembly with proper coordination to protect voting rights, but the Assembly under Mamata Banerjee has failed to do so,” he claimed. “An all-party meeting could have been convened, but she never bothered. Since coming to power in 2011, she has called only one such meeting in August 2011. She has miserably failed to protect people’s rights.”
Salim also said the CPM did not approve of Arabul Islam as ally ISF’s candidate from Canning Purba, adding that they were fighting against criminalisation, corruption and communalism.