States » EastPosted at: Sep 30 2026 8:38PM


Left parties to march against CEC, SIR in Kolkata on October 2

Kolkata, Sep 30 (UNI) Left parties will take out a protest march in Kolkata on October 2 demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and an immediate halt to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, CPI(M) West Bengal state secretary Mohammed Salim said on Wednesday.
The procession will begin from the Netaji statue and proceed towards the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the Esplanade area, Salim said in a statement.
The rally will also demand restoration of the names of genuine voters allegedly deleted from the electoral rolls during the SIR exercise. “We want restitution of democratic and independent norms of functioning of the Election Commission,” Salim said.
The announcement came a day after CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby and several other Left leaders were detained during a demonstration outside the Election Commission headquarters in New Delhi. The protestors were demanding Kumar’s resignation over the SIR exercise.
The Left parties have been campaigning against the SIR process, seeking the restoration of names allegedly removed from electoral rolls, besides demanding repeal of the 2023 law governing the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners.
Salim alleged that lakhs of names had been deleted from the electoral rolls to “fulfil the political motives of the RSS and the BJP”. The allegation forms part of the Left’s criticism of the electoral roll revision exercise.
The issue has particular political significance in West Bengal, where the Left suffered a major setback in the April Assembly elections. The CPI(M) won only one seat, while the other Left parties failed to win any. The SIR exercise in the state was conducted before the Assembly polls.
The Election Commission has also come under scrutiny following a recent media report, which claimed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected to certain decisions and orders that they said were issued without their knowledge.
According to the report, their objections related to amendments to statutory voter registration Form 6, the handling of additions and deletions from electoral rolls, and centralised control over the electoral roll database.
The objections were reportedly raised even as the nationwide SIR exercise was being conducted under the supervision of the full Commission.
The October 2 rally is expected to further intensify the Left’s campaign against the SIR exercise and its demands concerning the functioning of the Election Commission.
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Tags: #Left parties to march against CEC# SIR in Kolkata on October 2
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