CPI-M to hold public rally at SIR in October end

Kolkata, Oct 18 (IANS) The Communist Party of India-Marxist will hold a public rally in Kolkata on October 29, saying it will not oppose the upcoming Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal, only demanding that it ensure that names of genuine voters are not struck off from the voter list.

Incidentally, the Trinamool Congress has also decided to organize a massive rally in Kolkata in the first week or second week of November, protesting against the SIR in the state.

Other Left Front allies in the state will also participate during the rally to be held on October 29.

A CPI-M state committee member said there is a difference in the agenda of the CPI-M rally this month and the Trinamool Congress rally next month.

“They (Trinamool Congress) are completely opposed to implementing SIR in the state. But our demand is that not even a single genuine voter’s name should be removed after this exercise. We are not against removing names of fake, dead or duplicate voters from the voter list,” he said.

From the beginning, the CPI-M leadership had maintained a political agenda on SIR, which is different from that of the Trinamool Congress.

The CPI-M state committee member said, “The Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal is behaving as if SIR is happening for the first time. The last time SIR was conducted in the state was in 2002. This is just an attempt to mislead people. Our agitation is not against SIR, but against the misuse of the exercise to remove names of genuine voters of any community from the voter list.”

According to MD Salim, CPI-M politburo member and state secretary of the party, both the BJP and the Trinamool Congress are using the SIR as a medium to create a sense of fear among the people and mislead them.

Salim said, “So our movement is against both these (BJP and TMC) forces. It is the duty of the Election Commission of India to identify fake voters and it will definitely do so. But the names of genuine voters should not be removed from the voter list as a result of this.”

From the beginning, Trinamool Congress has been calling SIR a political ploy by the BJP and the Central government to implement NRC in West Bengal.

The BJP has claimed that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is opposing the SIR to ensure that the names of illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators remain in the voter list.

–IANS

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