Left Front's Memorandum to CEC

A delegation of Left parties MPs met the Chief Election Commissioner and submitted the following memorandum today. The delegation consisted of Sitaram Yechury (leader, CPI(M) in Rajya Sabha), Basudev Acharia (leader, CPI(M), Lok Sabha) Prabodh Panda (Communist Party of India), Narahari Mahato (All India Forward Bloc) and Prasanta Majumdar (Revolutionary Socialist Party).

Dear Sir,

Sub - Ongoing illegal inclusion of Photo Identity Cards in West Bengal through illegal affidavits

This is to inform you that on behalf of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), a delegation met Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal on July 10, 2010. They drew his attention regarding the illegal inclusion of fictitious names in voter's lists.

Because of the delay and large-scale mistakes in printing photo identity cards, some interested quarters are flouting the Election Commission's rules illegally by attaching affidavit in Form 6 for the inclusion of fictitious names in voter's lists. The CPI(M) delegation had also submitted some copies of affidavits. The Chief Electoral Officer assured the delegation that BLO cannot accept those affidavits and will be prevented from enlisting fictitious names in the voters' lists. The delegation also informed him that some BLOs are accepting forms in large-scale violation of rules of Election Commission.

The CPI(M) delegation drew the attention of the CEO about the difficulties being faced by the people in hill areas of Darjeeling, flood-affected areas in North Bengal, areas under river-banks erosion, terror affected areas of West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura districts and the people who have been evicted from their houses in East Midnapur, Khajuri, Nandigram, Moogbaria and other areas and urged upon him to ensure their names are enrolled in the voter's lists.

The CEO is fully aware of these issues and assured the delegation that necessary instructions will be sent and steps would be urgently taken. But there was no instruction given from the Chief Electoral Officer with regard to affidavits. In the meantime, thousands of fictitious and illegal affidavits are being prepared and people from outside are being forcibly deposited in the office of electoral officers who are unfortunately resorting to mass-scale acceptance of those illegal affidavits.

We, therefore, urge upon you to cancel those illegal affidavits and take steps against the electoral officials who accepted those affidavits and initiate legal action against the parties who are resorting to such fraudulent inclusion of fictitious voters directly or indirectly. Necessary steps need to be taken against such activities in the legal proceedings, so that no names could be included without proper enquiries at the time of hearings.

Sitaram Yechury (Leader, CPI(M), Rajya Sabha)

Basudev Acharia (Leader, CPI(M), Lok Sabha

Prabodh Panda (CPI)

Narahari Mahato (AIFB)

Prasanta Majumdar (RSP)