ECI making erroneous claims on not receiving objections: CPI(ML) General Secretary

Accusing the Election Commission of making misleading claims about receiving no objections from political parties, CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya on Friday (August 8, 2025) said the ECI has put the onus on the political parties to do the verification while introducing various hurdles in the process.

‘Acting as political challengers’

“The EC should work as facilitators [by] helping us, instead they are acting as political challengers,” Mr. Bhattacharya told media persons in Delhi. He said that it is not that the objections have not been filed as the EC has received 6,257 claims and objections directly from the electors. Mr. Bhattacharya said the EC has provided a consolidated list to the political parties of the one released in January 2024 and the draft list published on August 1.

No list in Hindi

Booth-level lists have not been provided in all districts, he said. “We have been repeatedly asking the EC to provide us with booth-level lists of deletion specifying the ground thereof, but that has not been done,” he said. Complaints cannot be filed till the reason for deletions as registered by the poll body is known. The lists are shared only in English and not Hindi as has been demanded by the political parties in Bihar, he added. Mr. Bhattacharya also said the deleted electors are being asked to apply afresh for inclusion by filling up Form 6. Mr. Bhattacharya asked, “Let EC tell us how many of those filling Form 6 are first-time voters and how many are those who have been deleted.”

The approach of the EC, that it is for the political parties to flag the discrepancies, is entirely wrong, he added. “People are expecting their voting rights to be guaranteed by the EC and not by the block-level agents of political parties...the EC is demonstrating how the EC should not function,” he said.

The CPI(ML) will be organising nationwide protests under the banner of ‘Chunav Chor, Gaddi Chodo’ (Vote Thieves, Leave the Chair) from August 9 to 11. This will be followed by a decentralised protest in Bihar to coincide with Independence Day. The INDIA bloc’s Vote Adhikhar Rally (Vote-Right Rally) will begin August 17.