Kolkata, March 4 The Left parties launched a night-long protest in front of the West Bengal CEO's office here on Wednesday, demanding transparency in the post-SIR electoral rolls in the state.
A procession, led by Left Front chairman Biman Bose, was taken out from the Tea Board headquarters to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in central Kolkata, where leaders and workers began a sit-in.
The demonstration also saw participation from parties outside the Left Front, including CPI(ML) Liberation.
CPI(M) state secretary Mohammed Salim, CPI(ML) Liberation leader Kartick Pal, and RSP leader Manoj Bhattacharya were present.
Left leaders said the sit-in would continue until Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal meets them and accepts their memorandum.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the protest, Salim made it clear that the party would not prioritize announcing candidates before the electoral rolls are finalized.
He asserted that the candidate lists of the Left Front will be announced after the voter list issue is settled in a transparent manner.
"First, the voter list, then the candidate list. People come first," he said.
While CPI(M) sources indicated that the Left Front candidate selection process had already been completed, Salim stressed that "any formal announcement would depend on the completion of the voter list revision".
"The names of voters who have been unfairly placed under the adjudication category or deleted arbitrarily must be included," he said.
The flashpoint is the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which has seen around 63.66 lakh names deleted since the exercise began, while nearly 60 lakh voters have been placed in an "under adjudication" category.
A senior Kolkata Police officer visited the protest site in the evening and requested the demonstrators to withdraw, but Salim reportedly declined.
"We will continue our sit-in until the CEO meets us and we submit our memorandum,” he said.
During the protest, leaders and workers joined an iftar gathering organised at the site.
The Left Front called for a larger public meeting at the protest site on Thursday.