Left parties protest electoral roll revision in Visakhapatnam

CPI(M) and CPI held protests in Visakhapatnam on October 9 against the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. Participants demanded that the exercise be withdrawn and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar removed.

CPI(M) activists marched from their office in Pithapuram Colony to the highway at Maddilapalem. Other demonstrations took place at Purna Market, Malkapuram, Arilova, Pendurthi and Kancharapalem. Both parties jointly protested at Kommadi Junction in Madhurawada in the evening. Participants burned portraits of Gyanesh Kumar at some demonstrations.

Local party representatives accused the BJP and RSS of politically motivated deletions from electoral rolls. R.K.S.V. Kumar claimed that around 13 crore entries, or 130 million, had been removed nationwide. Speakers at the evening protest alleged that around 50,000 voters had been deleted in Andhra Pradesh. The report did not independently substantiate those estimates.

At Kancharapalem, CPI representative P. Chandrasekhar demanded a judicial inquiry into the commissioner's conduct and the restoration of deleted names. The Hindu reported that Left parties had also called nationwide protests for October 10.