INDIA bloc rallies in Agartala, demands CEC's removal and end to SIR

Eight opposition parties in Tripura's INDIA bloc took out a large protest march through Agartala on Friday, demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the withdrawal of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

Instead of party flags, participants carried the national Tricolour and sang patriotic songs as they walked through the streets of the state capital. The march ended in a public meeting.

The bloc's Tripura unit brings together the Congress, CPI(M), CPI, Revolutionary Socialist Party, All India Forward Bloc, CPI(ML), Gana Mancha and the Tripura People's Party. The rally was led by former chief minister Manik Sarkar, Leader of the Opposition Jitendra Chaudhury, Tripura Pradesh Congress president Asish Kumar Saha, former minister Manik Dey and Congress MLAs Sudip Roy Barman and Gopal Chandra Roy.

The demands

According to Daijiworld, the parties put forward four demands: removal of Gyanesh Kumar as CEC, withdrawal of the SIR exercise, a review of provisions they say weaken the independence of the Election Commission, and an end to the legal protections given to the CEC.

Roy Barman also called for restoring the earlier method of appointing election commissioners, under which the Chief Justice of India was part of the selection panel, and for accountability for officials accused of electoral irregularities.

Claims about deletions

Chaudhury, who is also the CPI(M) state secretary, said the SIR could exclude genuine voters unless proper safeguards were in place. He claimed that about 13.50 crore voters had already been removed from rolls across the country through the exercise and that more than 2.50 lakh names could be deleted in Tripura. Roy Barman put the Tripura figure at over two lakh. These are the opposition's estimates; the Election Commission has not published any such figure for the state.

Saha alleged irregularities in voter registration, including duplicate entries and unusually large numbers of voters listed at some addresses. Chaudhury also alleged that in earlier municipal and local body polls, opposition candidates had struggled even to collect and file nomination papers.

Civic polls weeks away

The rally came on the day the State Election Commission notified elections to Tripura's 21 urban local bodies, with polling on November 27 and counting on December 2. Nominations close on November 6.

The SIR in Tripura has itself been pushed back because of the civic polls, with the final roll now due in April. The opposition wants the exercise scrapped altogether.

Leaders of the bloc said they would keep up the agitation until their demands are met, and appealed to parties outside the alliance to join the campaign.