Tripura CPM demands suspension of ‘preparatory work for SIR’, calls for all-party meeting

Manik Dey later told reporters that the CEO explained to the delegation that the commission had started only preparatory work for the SIR and that no decision on conducting the SIR in the state had been made.

“It is evident from the memorandums issued by various EROs (subdivisional magistrates) that the Election Commission has undertaken the preliminary exercise of scrutiny of voter rolls with the goal of conducting the SIR in the state. The booth-level officers (BLOs) have been provided with a format to furnish information about the family lineage of voters… Neither the CEO nor the electoral registration officers have thought it necessary to make the political parties and the electors aware of this important and sensitive exercise on the state’s electoral roll,” the CPM leaders wrote in a letter submitted to the CEO.

In July, TIPRA Motha party founder Pradyot Kishore Debbarma demanded that the Election Commission hold the SIR in the Northeast, especially in Tripura, and alleged that in many areas, people had got Aadhaar cards illegally, taking advantage of corruption among government officials.

In the letter, the delegation also highlighted some of the incidents of violence targeting CPM leaders and offices that occurred in the state and sought the CEO’s intervention in the matter.

“You, being the highest authority of the state to ensure and supervise the democratic rights of all the parties, should not remain indifferent to the blatant assaults on the democratic rights of the Opposition parties, mainly by the ruling BJP, in the state. Hence, you must utilise your position to intervene in the incidents,” the letter said.

The letter said that miscreants linked to the BJP attacked CPM leaders at the ERO’s office in Santirbazar in South Tripura district on September 16 when they went to attend an all-party meeting. Three leaders of the party were injured in the attack, as per the letter.

On September 19, miscreants backed by the BJP demolished a CPM office at Pratapgarh in Agartala with a bulldozer, the letter stated. On September 22, CPM Jampuijala local committee secretary Shyamal Debbarma was attacked by BJP ally TIPRA Motha’s supporters at his house, the letter further read.