A CPIML delegation led by polit bureau member and Bihar State Secretary Kunal submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission in Patna on February 20 with suggestions to ensure voting rights of poor and dalits in those constituencies of Bihar where feudal casteist forces are known to prevent oppressed communities from exercising their voting rights.
Comrade Kunal told that according to ECI's own report there are many booths where voting percentage used to be below the national average. In districts like Ara, Jahanabad, Pataliputra, Karakat and Siwan this trend is more prominent because of still prevailing feudal domination over dalits, poor, oppressed, minorities and women voters. These are the regions where the poor have made sacrifices to preserve their right to vote in the past too. Since 1980-90s when the poor started to assert their democratic rights they have even faced many mass massacres by the upper caste dominated Ranvir Sena. This is a travesty that till today none of the Ranvir Sena criminals have been punished for massacre of hundreds of poor dalit and minority members. He said the BJP-Sangh are banking upon these same forces to spread terror and prevent voters from exercising their voting right.
The CPIML has demanded from the ECI to make polling booths inside the tolas and localities of dalits and poor in the coming Lok Sabha elections. In the absence of any government building inside dalit localities ECI must arrange for mobile booths so that they can exercise their voting right without fear. All dalit and poor voters must be given polling booths at their tolas.
The party delegation also apprised ECI of deletion of names from the voters' lists. Many names from dalit, MBC and backward communities are missing after the revision of electoral rolls. This is quite astonishing that the name of CPIML politburo member and ex-MLA Rajaram Singh has been deleted from the voter list without citing any reason. The party has demanded to include all deleted names in the electoral rolls without delay.
The CPIML reiterated the party's stand that elections should be conducted with paper ballots and EVMs be removed. EVMs are increasingly coming under doubts and the ECI has failed to clear those suspicions. If EVMs are used in the forthcoming elections then 100 percent VVPAT counting must be allowed to ensure the credibility and impartiality of the entire election process.
CPIML has also demanded to decrease the expenditure limit for candidates and parties both, this is much needed to counter the increasing domination of muscle and money power on the country's electoral democracy.
