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Journalism of Courage
Continuing its crackdown, the Election Commission (EC) has rejected almost half of the CPI(M) cadres’ 41 lakh new applications for addition into electoral rolls for the forthcoming elections.
The State Chief Electoral Officer’s office clarified that most of the applications were rejected at preliminary scrutiny after officials found documents related to age-proof and other supporting evidence to be fake.
According to officials, certificates issued by school headmasters, and in some cases by public representatives, for the applicants were deemed not acceptable during the current round of electoral rolls’ revision.
Interestingly, several top CPI(M) leaders — particularly Anil Biswas, the party’s state secretary and a Politburo member — had earlier claimed that 41 lakh applications were filed by party cadres out of the total 42 lakh new names that came up for scrutiny.
‘‘When the Opposition was busy organising movements against the Left Front government’s drive for industrialisation in the state, our workers had submitted 41 lakh claims before the Election Commission,’’ Biswas had said recently.
The Indian Express has found that the CPI(M) headquarter at Alimuddin Street had directed all party units to collect new applications in early December, when the EC had initiated its summary revision of electoral roll.
The 41 lakh applications was said to be the fruit of that initiative.
An official in the state election department said there were many cases of under-age claimants as well. ‘‘Every application was scrutinised carefully this time following the EC’s stringent attitude towards a clean electoral roll,’’ the official said. Only about 20 lakh applications were accepted.
Leader of Opposition Pankaj Banerjee did not lose opportunity to slam CPI(M).
‘‘How could they file 41 lakh claims?’’ he asked. ‘‘It is unlawful to file claims and objections in a bunch. It is now clear how the ruling party cadres controlled the (election) process at ground level thus far. Thanks to the EC, their fake claims have been rejected this time,’’ he added.
Meanwhile, the EC’s ‘Operation clean-up’ has also detected nearly 11 lakh dead and non-existent voters in the rolls.
Officials said this was possible because of the EC’s ‘‘innovative step’’ of requisitioning death registers and cross-checking them with the voters’ lists.
