Ranchi, Sep 27 (PTI) Left parties in Jharkhand on Sunday demanded an immediate halt to the SIR exercise, reconstitution of the Election Commission and the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
In a joint meeting held in Ranchi, members of the CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML) Liberation, Forward Bloc, RSP and the SUCI also decided to launch a district-level protest from September 28 till October 2, seeking resignation of the CEC.
Addressing a press conference here, Jharkhand CPI(M) secretary Prakash Viplav alleged that the CEC was working as an agent of the BJP and the Union government.
“We demand an immediate halt to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the country, resignation of Gyanesh Kumar and reconstitution of the Election Commission,” Viplav said.
The Left parties also urged the Supreme Court to take cognisance of a news report regarding internal dissent in the poll panel over the SIR.
A recent Indian Express report had claimed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected on record at least 14 times over the last 10 months to decisions and orders they said were issued without their knowledge, even as the national rollout of the SIR was under the supervision of the full commission.
Their objections covered the way the statutory voter registration Form 6 was amended, the handling of additions and deletions from voter lists, and centralised control over the electoral roll database, according to the report.
CPI(ML) Liberation state secretary Manoj Bhakt alleged that lakhs of voters’ names were struck off the rolls in West Bengal, Bihar and Maharashtra.
“The figures recently released by the Election Commission for Jharkhand suggest that a significant number of people here will be deprived of the opportunity to vote, and will have their names removed from the rolls,” he claimed. PTI SAN RBT
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