[Marxistindia] Solidarity with the People of West Bengal Struggling for Democracy

[news from the cpi(m)]

July 12, 2023

 

Press Statement

 

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the
following statement:

 

Solidarity with the People of West Bengal Struggling for Democracy

 

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) is outraged at the developments in West
Bengal in the wake of the counting process of the votes cast by the people
for the three-tier panchayats in the state. The state administration and the
state Election Commission, acting in complicity with the ruling party,
engaged in large-scale falsification of the choice exercised by the people,
violating the orders of the State Election Commission. There was open
violation of directions of the High Court.  

 

In a zilla parishad seat in the Bhangar area, the election officials
reversed the result where the Left supported opposition ISF candidate won
with a huge margin and announced a TMC candidate as elected.  This led to a
massive popular protest, upon which the police resorted to indiscriminate
firing resulting in the death of four people.  Subsequently, a reign of
terror has been unleashed by the police and the entire area is virtually
inaccessible.  

 

The Bhangar incident symbolizes the large-scale vitiation of results.  The
state Election Commission website was deactivated and the counting process
was slowed down facilitating such reversal of results. The results for the
panchayat samiti and zilla parishad have no legitimacy because the counting
was held in the dead of the night forcing the counting agents of Left and
the other secular forces out of the counting centre.  Such is the scale of
irregularity that large number of ballots stamped in favour of the CPI(M)
have been recovered outside counting centres which, obviously, were not
considered in the counting process.  

 

The pattern of manipulation clearly establishes that the vitiation of the
process was undertaken to ensure the victory of the TMC and push the BJP to
the second position despite a completely different ground reality.

 

This farce of elections making a mockery of democracy has led the Calcutta
High Court which issued an interim order, today, to stay the publication of
results. 

The Polit Bureau expresses its solidarity with the Left, Congress, ISF and
other secular forces who are engaged in a life and death battle for
restoring democracy against the TMC and the BJP and urges the
democratic-minded people of the country to stand with the people of West
Bengal at this grim juncture. 

 

 

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