People's Democracy

WEST BENGAL

Left Protests Illegal Inclusions in Voters Lists

IN a memorandum submitted to the chief election commissioner (CEC) at New Delhi on August 3, 2010, a delegation of the Left parties sought to draw his attention to the ongoing illegal inclusion of photo identity cards in West Bengal through illegal affidavits.

The delegation told the CEC that, on behalf of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), a delegation had met the chief electoral officer (CEO) of West Bengal on July 10, 2010, and drawn his attention to the illegal inclusion of fictitious names in the voters lists.

Because of the delay and large-scale mistakes in the printing of the photo identity cards, some interested quarters are flouting the Election Commission's rules illegally by attaching affidavits in Form 6 for the inclusion of fictitious names in the voters lists. The CPI(M) delegation had also submitted copies of some such affidavits. The chief electoral officer had then assured the CPI(M) delegation that the BLO could not accept such affidavits and would be prevented from enlisting fictitious names in the voters lists. The Left delegation also informed the CEC that some BLOs were accepting forms in large-scale violation of rules of the Election Commission.

On July 10, the CPI(M) delegation had also drawn the CEO’s attention to the difficulties being faced by the people in hill areas of Darjeeling, flood-affected areas in North Bengal, areas under river-banks erosion, terror affected areas of West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura districts and the people who have been evicted from their houses in East Midnapur, Khajuri, Nandigram, Moogbaria and other areas. The CPI(M) team had urged upon the CEO to ensure that their names were enrolled in the voters lists.  

The CEO said he was fully aware of these issues and assured the delegation that necessary instructions would be sent and steps urgently taken. But there has so far been no instruction from the chief electoral officer with regard to affidavits. In the meantime, thousands of fictitious and illegal affidavits are being prepared for people from outside and forcibly deposited in the office of the electoral officers who are unfortunately resorting to mass-scale acceptance of those illegal affidavits.

The Left parties therefore urged the chief election commissioner to cancel such illegal affidavits and take steps against the electoral officials who accepted those affidavits. The Ecection Commission of India must also initiate legal action against the parties which are resorting to such fraudulent inclusion of fictitious voters directly or indirectly. Necessary steps need to be taken against such activities, so that no names could be included without proper enquiries at the time of hearings.

The delegation of the Left parties that met the CEC included Sitaram Yechury and Basudev Acharia of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Prabodh Panda of the Communist Party of India, Narahari Mahato of the All India Forward Bloc and Prasanta Majumdar of the Revolutionary Socialist Party.