Eight-party alliance calls for removal of Chief Election Commissioner, scrapping of SIR and restoration of deleted voter names; joint fight against BJP in municipal polls also on agenda

STEPPING up the struggle against what it described as a systematic assault on electoral democracy, the Tripura chapter of the INDIA bloc will organise a mass march in Agartala on October 30, carrying the national flag and raising a five-point charter of demands. The eight-party alliance will march from Orient Chowmuhani at 11 am and submit a memorandum to the Chief Electoral Officer.

Announcing the programme at a press conference at Agartala Press Club on Saturday, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and Tripura State Secretary Jitendra Chaudhury called upon all secular, democratic and patriotic forces to unite in defence of the Constitution, voting rights and the country's democratic institutions.

Chaudhury said the hard-won gains of the freedom struggle, embodied in the Constitution and the country's electoral system, were facing an unprecedented assault under the BJP-led government at the Centre. The Modi-Amit Shah regime was systematically undermining the independence of constitutional institutions and manipulating electoral processes to retain power, he alleged.

The Election Commission, instead of functioning as an impartial constitutional authority, was being reduced to an instrument serving the ruling party's political interests. The changes introduced in the law governing the appointment of Election Commissioners had further weakened its institutional independence, he said.

Questioning the appointment of Gyanesh Kumar as Chief Election Commissioner, Chaudhury referred to observations made by former Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi regarding Kumar's administrative career. He alleged that the objections of the other two Election Commissioners had been disregarded and that the Commission was being used to legitimise large-scale deletion of voters’ names.

The ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise was particularly dangerous, he said. Around 13.5 crore names had reportedly been deleted from electoral rolls through the exercise. In Tripura, there were apprehensions that between two and 2.5 lakh voters could be struck off the lists. Such arbitrary exclusion amounted to a direct attack on the constitutional right to vote and threatened to disenfranchise large sections of the people, Chaudhury warned.

The five-point charter of demands includes:

- Repeal of the law governing the appointment of Election Commissioners.

- Removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

- Withdrawal of the SIR exercise.

- Restoration of all names deleted from electoral rolls through SIR.

- Repeal of the law granting lifelong post-retirement benefits to the Chief Election Commissioner.

Chaudhury also demanded accountability for the manner in which the Election Commission had been constituted and was functioning. He said the law had been pushed through Parliament after 147 opposition MPs were suspended, silencing democratic dissent and riding roughshod over parliamentary conventions.

Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee president Asish Kumar Saha said the struggle was not merely against electoral irregularities but against the systematic destruction of democratic rights. Vote theft, manipulation of electoral rolls and arbitrary rejection of applications for inclusion of names had become recurring features, he alleged.

Referring to the reported case in Uttar Pradesh where 13,000 names were found registered against a single EPIC number, Saha questioned the credibility of the electoral process. He also accused the Election Commission of acting in an openly partisan manner in West Bengal.

Students, youth, working people and organisations representing different sections of society were joining the nationwide struggle, he said. The INDIA bloc would intensify the movement in Tripura through sustained joint programmes. No conspiracy to deprive people of their voting rights would be allowed to go unchallenged.

Other constituent parties of the alliance also strongly condemned the attacks on democracy. CPI state secretary Milan Baidya, CPI(ML) state secretary Partha Karmakar, RSP state secretary Dipak Deb, Forward Bloc leader Raghunath Sarkar, Tripura People's Party state secretary Bimal Sinha and Ganamanch state secretary Yamini Goala called for a united resistance by all secular and democratic forces.

EFFORTS ON FOR OPPOSITION UNITY AHEAD OF MUNICIPAL POLLS

The press conference also brought the question of opposition unity in Tripura's forthcoming municipal and urban local body elections into sharp focus. Responding to questions on the possibility of an electoral understanding among anti-BJP parties, Chaudhury said the immediate task was to defend voting rights, without which the very meaning of electoral democracy would be lost. The INDIA bloc was united in Parliament and at the national level, and efforts would be made to consolidate anti-BJP votes in the forthcoming municipal elections.

Admitting that opposition coordination had suffered from certain weaknesses during the TTAADC and Village Committee elections, he said the experience must be taken into account. Positive initiatives would be undertaken to bring anti-BJP secular and democratic forces together in the municipal and urban local body elections. The people's aspirations must be respected, he stressed.

Saha was categorical that the BJP would fail to secure even a double-digit tally if the municipal elections were conducted in a genuinely free and fair manner. The ruling dispensation was presiding over corruption, loot and misgovernance while attempting to divert attention through political rhetoric, he alleged.

Referring to the deteriorating democratic environment in the state, the Congress leader said even journalists were no longer safe. Comparing the present situation with the period of Left Front rule, he said the political circumstances today were fundamentally different. The defence of democracy, civil liberties and press freedom had become an urgent political task.

He also accused the BJP and its allies of practising deception in the TTAADC and Village Committee elections, and said the people must be mobilised against this politics.

The October 30 march is therefore significant beyond its immediate five-point charter. It signals the INDIA bloc's attempt to carry the nationwide struggle for electoral democracy into the political arena of Tripura, while building a broader opposition unity against the BJP ahead of the municipal elections.

The alliance leadership has called upon all democratic, secular and patriotic people to join the mobilisation and make the defence of voting rights a mass movement.