Agartala, Sep 26:
Five Left parties in Tripura on Saturday demanded the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging that the functioning of the Election Commission and the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls had raised serious concerns over voters’ rights.
The CPI(M), CPI, RSP, Forward Bloc and CPI(ML) jointly organised a protest march in Agartala, beginning from the CPI(M) West District office and concluding with a street meeting at Shakuntala Road.
The protesters raised slogans against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and demanded his removal from his post.
Addressing reporters on the sidelines of the protest, CPI(M) state secretary and Leader of the Opposition Jitendra Chaudhury said the Left parties had joined the wider opposition campaign against the functioning of the Chief Election Commission and demanded Kumar’s removal from office.
“Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar must be removed from his post,” Chaudhury said, alleging that the functioning of the poll panel had affected democracy, the Constitution and people’s right to vote.
He also raised concerns over the deletion of voters’ names during the SIR exercise and demanded restoration of all eligible names removed from electoral rolls.
Chaudhury referred to reports that more than 13 crore names had been excluded from draft electoral rolls during the SIR exercise and said the names of eligible voters should be brought back into the rolls.
A national daily reported on September 25 that the national SIR exercise had struck more than 13 crore names from draft electoral rolls across 30 states and Union territories. The report also said Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally recorded objections on several issues concerning electoral rolls and related decisions over the preceding 10 months.
Chaudhury further demanded that the Election Commission be allowed to function independently and called for changes to the existing law governing the appointment of election commissioners.
The five Left parties’ protest comes amid a wider political controversy over the functioning of the Election Commission, following reports of differences within the three-member poll panel over aspects of electoral-roll management and the SIR exercise. Opposition parties in several parts of the country have also raised demands concerning the CEC and the electoral-roll revision process.
