CPI-M's Rally Amid SIR Controversy: Defending Genuine Voters' Rights

Incidentally, the Trinamool Congress has also decided to conduct a huge rally in Kolkata either in the first week or in the second week of November, opposing the SIR in the state.

During the rally to be held on October 29, the allies of the other Left Front in the state will also participate.

A CPI-M State Committee member said that there is a difference in the agenda of CPI-M's rally this month with that of Trinamool Congress next month.

"They (Trinamool Congress) are totally opposed to carrying out the SIR in the state. But our demand is that the name of a single genuine voter should not be deleted following the exercise. We are not against the deletion of names of bogus, dead or duplicate voters from the voters' list," he added.

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

"The Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal is behaving in such a manner as if the SIR is taking place for the first time. The last time the SIR was conducted in the state was in 2002. This is just an attempt to mislead people. Our movement is not against the SIR but against misuse of the exercise to delete names of genuine voters from any community, from the voters' list," the CPI-M State Committee member said.

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

"So our movement is against both these (BJP and TMC) forces. It is the duty of the Election Commission of India to identify bogus voters, and it will surely do that. But that should not result in the deletion of names of genuine voters from the voters' list," Salim said.

Since the beginning, Trinamool Congress has been calling the SIR as a political ploy by the BJP and the Union government to impose the NRC in West Bengal.

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

- IANS