Dedicate my vote to those who were disenfranchised, stripped of their rights: CPI(M)'s Md Salim

CPI(M) politburo member and the party's West Bengal secretary, Md Salim, on Wednesday said he dedicated his vote to those who were ''disenfranchised by the SIR exercise'', alleging it was carried out with a design to strip people of their constitutional rights. Speaking to PTI videos after casting his vote at the St Thomas Girls' School in Kolkata, Salim said polls were taking place peacefully so far, apart from some sporadic and minor incidents. ''The poll percentage will go up this time compared to previous years because I can see, for the first time, people standing in long queues to exercise their franchise. That is perhaps fuelled by attempts made to snatch their voting rights,'' he said. ''I dedicate my vote to those people who are not able to cast their votes today because of a conscious design to disenfranchise them and strip them of their fundamental and constitutional rights. We have fought before, and the resistance to that project will continue in future,'' he added. Nearly 40 per cent of the 3.21 crore electors voted till 11 am of the second phase of polling in West Bengal amid sporadic violence.

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