Left parties demand CEC's removal, suspension of SIR, call for week-long protest

Left parties on Friday called for the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the suspension of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, alleging that the exercise had eroded the transparency and credibility of the Election Commission of India.

Speaking at a press conference in Vijayawada, leaders of various Left parties said voters who had been unfairly excluded from the rolls should have their voting rights restored. They also demanded that the Election Commission's independent and democratic functioning be restored.

The leaders pointed to a September 23 report in a national daily about objections reportedly raised by two of the three Election Commissioners over decisions relating to voter registration, deletion and restoration of names, and the conduct of the SIR. According to the Left leaders, this reflected the manner in which the poll panel has been functioning under Mr. Kumar.

They further sought to replace the existing system of appointing Election Commissioners with a mechanism based on a selection committee comprising the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Chief Justice of India.

The parties announced a week-long nationwide protest from September 26 to October 2 and appealed to non-BJP, secular and democratic opposition parties, civil society organisations and citizens to join the campaign.

The Forward Bloc, RSP, CPI(ML)-New Democracy and CPI(ML) endorsed the decisions, though their representatives did not attend the meeting, the parties said.

Among those present were CPI(M) leaders V. Srinivasa Rao and D. Ramadevi, CPI leader A. Vanaja, CPI(ML)-New Democracy leader K. Polari, SUCI(C) leader Sudheer, MCPI(U) leaders Khader Basha and Kasani Ganesh, and CPI(ML) Liberation leaders D. Harinath and Uday Kiran.