Communists of India escalate campaign over electoral-roll revision

The action formed part of a week-long programme announced by the five parties for 26 September–2 October.

Among those participating were CPI(M) General Secretary M. A. Baby, CPI(M) leaders Brinda Karat, Subashini Ali, Arun Kumar, B V Raghavulu, CPI leader and National Federation of Indian Women president Nisha Sidhu, and CPI(ML) Liberation leaders Sucheta De and Shweta Raj. As the demonstrators raised slogans demanding Kumar's removal, Delhi Police forcibly detained the protesters.

CPI(M) General Secretary M A Baby, Polit Bureau members B V Raghavulu and R Arun Kumar, senior leaders Brinda Karat and Subhashini Ali, Delhi State Secretary Anurag Saxena, Rajya Sabha MP V Sivadasan and A A Rahim and other senior leaders, along with Nisha Sidhu from CPI, Sucheta De and Shweta Raj were among those detained, together with activists from the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), All India Lawyers' Association for Justice and other Left organisations. 

Baby said during the protest that Gyanesh Kumar should resign or be removed. Brinda Karat called for the immediate suspension of the SIR and for changes to the rules governing the Election Commission. CPI(ML) Liberation described the police action as a “violent crackdown”, while Sucheta De said the protesters had been brutally detained. 

All those detained have later been released.

The immediate political issue is the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. The Left parties are demanding that the exercise be stopped and that voting rights be restored to people whom they allege have been wrongly excluded from electoral rolls. Their campaign follows reports that the two other Election Commissioners, S. S. Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had recorded objections on 14 occasions over the preceding ten months concerning decisions relating to voter registration, deletion and restoration of names and the SIR exercise. The Election Commission has rejected the suggestion that these differences undermine its decisions, maintaining that the SIR decisions received the unanimous approval of all three commissioners and that the exercise is intended to improve the accuracy of electoral rolls.

CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali said the Left parties intend to organise demonstrations across the country every day and that the campaign would continue beyond the current week if necessary. The five parties have also called for broader coordination with opposition parties and civil-society organisations over the electoral-roll issue.

The Delhi action follows earlier police detentions during protests over the same issue. On 25 September, more than 60 protesters, including CPI(ML) Liberation General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, were detained near Jantar Mantar during an AISA-led demonstration demanding accountability from the Election Commission and the removal of Gyanesh Kumar.

Elsewhere, CPI National Secretary Rama Krushna Panda and CPI Odisha Secretary Dr. Prasant Kumar Misra addressed a massive demonstration organised by the INDIA Bloc parties of Odisha in Bhubaneswar, demanding the scrapping of the MMDR Amendment Act and the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar.