CPI(M) slams ECI over deletion of 90 lakh West Bengal voters

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday lodged a strong protest with the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the alleged “large-scale deletion” of voters from the electoral rolls in West Bengal following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).

In a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), CPI(M) General Secretary MA Baby termed the exercise a “systematic mass disenfranchisement.” He claimed that over 90 lakh voters — roughly 12 per cent of the State’s electorate — have been excluded from the rolls.

“Reports indicate that a significant number were placed under an impervious category of ‘under adjudication,’ only to find that redressal mechanisms were inaccessible and non-operational,” Baby stated. He alleged that the SIR relied on algorithm-driven exclusions and arbitrary criteria like “logical consistency” rather than transparent, field-based verification.

The party further claimed that the exercise disproportionately impacted marginalised communities, including Muslims, women, and the economically vulnerable. The CPI(M) argued that the removal of these names amounts to a denial of the right to vote guaranteed under Article 326 of the Constitution.

“The voter was treated as a suspect, and the burden to prove otherwise rested on them,” the letter noted, highlighting the “mental trauma and inconvenience” caused to citizens. The party demanded that the ECI guarantee the constitutional right to vote “at any cost” and criticised the opacity of the process, alleging that lists were released in formats that prevented public scrutiny.