CPI raises concern over alleged voter deletions in West Bengal, writes to Election Commission
- CPI National
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Dear Shri Gyanesh Kumar,
I write to you with deep concern and a profound sense of unease at the scale and manner of voter deletions following the Special Intensive Revision in West Bengal. The reported removal of nearly ninety lakh names from the rolls is not merely a matter of numbers but a reflection of widespread anguish, uncertainty and exclusion among ordinary citizens. What is particularly troubling is the inversion of responsibility, where the burden has been placed upon the voter to prove their own legitimacy. This process conveys an impression of a mass-cleansing of electoral rolls, leaving countless genuine voters unheard and effectively disenfranchised.
Families are finding themselves partially erased from the rolls, elderly citizens are being asked to produce documents, and the poor and marginalised are pushed into processes they cannot reasonably navigate. Such developments hollow out the substantive content of our participatory democracy and erode faith in its institutions.
Given the sheer scale and spread of these deletions, serious concerns arise in the public mind about the processes adopted and the institutional environment in which they have taken place. The Election Commission of India, vested with constitutional authority under Article 324, is entrusted with independence and neutrality that are non-negotiable. The right to vote, exercised without fear or favour, is cardinal to democracy itself and must be upheld at all costs. It is especially disturbing that such a process has been carried out while the state is in the midst of an election campaign, with polling scheduled on 23 and 29 April. We register a strong protest against this course of action and urge the Commission to uphold its constitutional mandate, which is to protect and guarantee the right to vote of every citizen.
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