INDIA bloc must craft joint response to electoral roll revision, says CPI(ML) Liberation

CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya has urged the INDIA bloc to formulate a unified national response to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, arguing that state-specific positions taken by opposition parties so far are inadequate.

Speaking to The Hindu, Bhattacharya noted that the alliance's last meeting in Delhi on June 8 had set a timeline for another gathering within two months. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had announced August 8 in Hyderabad as the date, but that meeting has yet to materialise.

"August 8 has come and gone, but the meeting has not happened. We have raised it with the Congress," he said, adding that several issues require a collective alliance position.

The SIR is among the most pressing matters, Bhattacharya said. "So far, every State and the Opposition have responded to the SIR challenge in their own way. Now we have the all-India picture emerging; it is high time that we take a national view and evolve a collective response."

He pointed to mass voter exclusions in Bihar, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh as evidence of the revision's impact. The issue gains urgency with assembly elections scheduled in seven states in 2027, including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Manipur, and Goa.

Bhattacharya confirmed his party would contest the Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Punjab elections, preferably within the INDIA bloc framework, but independently or with the Left bloc if a broader coalition does not emerge.

He also cautioned against predicting electoral outcomes given what he described as mass disenfranchisement. "We can only talk about the people's mood and their eagerness for change. What made Jantar Mantar click? It was UP. It was the anger of U.P. voters that spilled over into the streets of Delhi," he said.