CHENNAI: The Left parties on Thursday demanded accountability over the alleged manipulation of electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise and called for the removal of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, accusing the Election Commission of acting as a “puppet” of the ruling party at the Centre.
Addressing an INDIA bloc protest against what they termed the “murder of democracy”, CPI(M) state secretary P Shanmugam condemned the government’s action against student and youth protesters in Delhi over the issue. He stressed that the right to protest was guaranteed by the Constitution.
Shanmugam criticised the police and paramilitary forces for their crackdown on those protesting to defend democratic values and voting rights.
Calling for Kumar’s immediate removal, Shanmugam alleged that the Election Commission had become a “puppet” in the hands of the ruling party.
He claimed that 13.5 crore voters had been removed from electoral rolls and alleged that the exercise was a systematic attempt to disenfranchise specific sections of society, including Muslims and marginalised communities, under the pretext of removing ineligible voters.
He urged the INDIA bloc and the people of Tamil Nadu to join the protest movement, calling for statewide demonstrations in solidarity with the students protesting in Delhi and to defend the democratic principle of “one person, one vote”.
CPI state secretary M Veerapandian urged Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay to speak out against what he termed an injustice. He said the Chief Minister, as a representative of the Tamil people, had the influence to raise the issue and press for corrective action.
Veerapandian called for political intervention to protect democratic rights, invoking the legacy of leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, B R Ambedkar and Jawaharlal Nehru, who helped shape the country’s democratic foundations.
He also expressed disappointment with the judiciary, citing a Supreme Court case in which, he alleged, the focus had been on minor clerical errors rather than the larger concerns surrounding voter disenfranchisement.
(With inputs from PTI)