Kolkata, Oct 6 (PTI) AISA president Neha Bora on Tuesday urged all political forces, besides INDIA bloc constituents, “that understand the urgency of the situation over deletion of names from the voter list during the SIR exercise” to unitedly take on the BJP-led government at the Centre.
She called upon people from all sections of society to join a citizens’ protest called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) in New Delhi on October 10.
CPI(ML) Liberation national general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya called for the immediate removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. AISA is affiliated to the CPI(ML) Liberation.
Bora said the government has “effectively sealed” Jantar Mantar, the designated protest site in the national capital, without any official notice or order, in view of the protests demanding accountability on the part of the elected representatives.
“The Election Commission, which should be the vanguard of democracy, misused its public office by being partisan towards a particular political party,” she alleged at a press conference here.
The AISA leader claimed the entire Delhi Police has been deployed to block all protests.
“Not only the INDIA bloc but also all political forces that understand the urgency of the situation, where a whole institution is working towards deleting the voting rights of people, must come together,” she said.
Bora urged the civil society to join the protest called by the CJP in New Delhi on October 10.
She claimed that 13 crore names have so far been deleted during the special intensive revision of electoral rolls, and demanded the scrapping of the entire exercise.
“All governments elected after the SIR process are borne out of vote theft,” she alleged.
Bora said people from different walks of life and professions — from lawyers to educationists and activists — are participating in the agitations over the SIR process, and are trying to “stitch together a larger unity” in the process.
“Unity across party lines is being tried to be created,” she said.
The AISA leader claimed there is anger among the people against Gyanesh Kumar over the “issue of vote theft” and they are “consolidating”.
Stating that the protests are not directed only against the Election Commission or the CEC, she said, “The way the CEC is given life-long immunity in the 2023 legislation changing the selection process of the poll panel and the CEC is a travesty of the whole process.”
The AISA leader, who went to Jadavpur University a day before to address an SFI-organised seminar, claimed that in view of the previous agitation over the NEET question paper leak, the government is very alert and is taking all steps to stop the protests seeking Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation and scrapping of the SIR process.
Bora claimed that instead of lodging an FIR against a sexual harassment accused during last week’s protests in New Delhi, a criminal case was filed against the associates of the alleged victim.
She claimed the government is under pressure because if the agitation against the SIR process succeeds, the assembly poll results in states where the elections were held after the SIR would be questioned.
“They have formed governments on the basis of stolen mandates and that is why they are on the backfoot,” she said.
The BJP formed the government in West Bengal for the first time, and came to power in Bihar in coalition with the JD(U) after SIR exercises.
Bhattacharya claimed that the elections held after the SIR of electoral rolls are sham.
“A ‘peaceful genocide’ has been organised by way of the SIR of electoral rolls vide which the voting rights of crores of people have been snatched,” he said.
“There is a countrywide demand for cancellation of the SIR and resignation of Gyanesh Kumar as the chief election commissioner,” he said, adding that the CEC and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, which changed the norms for CEC appointments, must also be scrapped.
“Gyanesh Kumar does not have the right to be in the CEC’s seat for one more second,” Bhattacharya, who was also present at the presser, said.
He claimed that a survey conducted by his party in 10 out of 20 seats it contested in the Bihar assembly elections found 17 per cent wrongful deletions following house visits in 102 booths in those constituencies.
“This game of deletions and additions in the voter list started since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, even before the SIR process started,” he said.
The CPI(ML) Liberation leader claimed that it is “legitimate” to demand fresh elections in states where assembly polls were held after the SIR process, especially Bihar and West Bengal. PTI AMR ACD
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