Will CPI-M's Upcoming Rally Address Voter Concerns?

Synopsis
Key Takeaways
- CPI-M's rally on October 29 focuses on protecting legitimate voters.
- Trinamool Congress plans to protest the SIR in November.
- CPI-M's position differs from Trinamool's outright opposition.
- Concerns about the SIR include potential misuse against genuine voters.
- The political narrative surrounding SIR is highly contentious.
Kolkata, Oct 18 (NationPress) The Communist Party of India-Marxist is set to hold a public rally in Kolkata on October 29. This event is not aimed at opposing the upcoming special intensive revision (SIR) in West Bengal, but rather to advocate that the names of legitimate voters remain on the voters' list.
Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress has planned a significant rally in Kolkata, scheduled for either the first or second week of November, in opposition to the SIR.
During the October 29 rally, various allies from the Left Front will join forces. A member from the CPI-M State Committee emphasized that the focus of CPI-M's rally differs from that of the Trinamool Congress rally next month.
'The Trinamool Congress is outright against the SIR in the state. Our stance is to ensure that no genuine voter's name is removed during this process. We do not oppose the removal of names that are fraudulent, deceased, or duplicated from the voters' list,' he stated.
From the outset, the CPI-M leadership has maintained a distinct political agenda regarding the SIR, contrasting with that of the Trinamool Congress.
'The Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal is acting as if the SIR is a new occurrence. The last SIR in this state was in 2002. This is merely an effort to mislead the populace. Our movement is not against the SIR itself, but against the potential misuse that might lead to the deletion of genuine voters' names from any community,' the CPI-M State Committee member added.
According to Md Salim, a member of the CPI-M politburo and party state secretary, both the BJP and Trinamool Congress are leveraging the SIR to instill fear and misinform the public.
'Thus, our campaign targets both of these forces (BJP and TMC). The Election Commission of India has the responsibility to identify fraudulent voters, and they will undoubtedly fulfill this duty. However, this should not result in the exclusion of legitimate voters' names from the list,' Salim remarked.
Since its inception, the Trinamool Congress has labeled the SIR as a political maneuver orchestrated by the BJP and the Union government to impose the NRC in West Bengal.
The BJP has accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of resisting the SIR to protect the names of illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators in the voters' list.