Mr. Bhattacharya mentioned that the social gathering, which is a constituent of the Opposition Mahagathbandhan, will start submitting nominations from Tuesday (October 14, 2025), even because the Grand Alliance is but to make a proper announcement about seat sharing.
Bihar election LIVE
He additionally slammed the voter roll deletions underneath the Election Commission’s particular intensive revision (SIR) as an “electoral purge masquerading as verification”.
The Left outfit, which emerged as a key participant within the 2020 polls by profitable 12 of the 19 seats it contested, this time had sought round 40 seats.
Mr. Bhattacharya, in an interview with PTI, mentioned that seat-sharing discussions with allies within the Grand Alliance have been finalised for 18 of the 19 constituencies it had fought final time, whereas talks are underway for a couple of extra.
He mentioned the social gathering’s marketing campaign equipment has already been mobilised throughout rural Bihar.
The CPI(ML) Liberation is an important a part of the Grand Alliance, which additionally contains the RJD, Congress, CPI, CPI(M) and Mukesh Sahni’s Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP).
Even because the ruling NDA has already sealed its seat sharing components, the opposition camp stays locked in negotiations. The RJD and Congress are nonetheless ironing out their understanding in Delhi, delaying the ultimate announcement of seat distribution.
“The RJD and Congress are finalising their understanding in Delhi. I don’t know the outcome yet,” Bhattacharya mentioned, refraining from commenting on whether or not the delay would show disadvantageous.
He had earlier instructed PTI final month that he hoped the Congress can be extra life like whereas the RJD extra accommodative of its smaller allies throughout the Bihar seat-sharing talks.
The nomination course of for the primary section of polling ends on October 17, and the Left outfit has already set its marketing campaign in movement, specializing in livelihood points, unemployment, worth rise and SIR, which Mr. Bhattacharya termed the “systematic disenfranchisement of the poor.” While finalising seat sharing, the Opposition has additionally been grappling with the controversy over mass voter deletions in Bihar underneath SIR, a difficulty that it has positioned on the coronary heart of its marketing campaign.
Rejecting speculations that the Grand Alliance had earlier thought of boycotting the polls in protest in opposition to alleged large-scale disenfranchisement, Bhattacharya mentioned such an possibility was “never on the table” as it could “facilitate exclusion instead of fighting it”.
“Boycott was never an option because that would mean walking out of democracy when democracy itself is under attack,” Mr. Bhattacharya mentioned.
“When the entire issue is about exclusion, boycotting the election would only mean voluntarily excluding ourselves. The fight is against exclusion, not to facilitate it,” he mentioned.
His remarks come within the backdrop of RJD chief Tejashwi Yadav’s July assertion that the Grand Alliance may “consider boycott” the elections if the deletions weren’t rectified.
“Some individuals might have made emotional remarks when fears of mass disenfranchisement were at their peak, when nearly two crore voters seemed at risk, but as a party, we never considered boycotting,” he mentioned.
Calling the SIR an “electoral purge masquerading as verification,” Mr. Bhattacharya alleged that the deletion of lakhs of names amounted to a “body blow to democracy and citizens’ right to vote”.
“This is not verification, this is exclusion. It’s a warning sign for the future of India’s democracy. A democracy cannot survive such a massive and opaque cleansing of voters. SIR is an attack on the Constitution itself,” he mentioned.
The EC’s ultimate electoral roll for Bihar, revealed on September 30, listed 7.42 crore voters, a drop of greater than 47 lakh for the reason that SIR started in June. Mr. Bhattacharya accused the EC of “abdicating its constitutional responsibility” and outsourcing the burden of correction to voters and political events.
“The EC’s job is to ensure a fair and accurate roll. Instead, it has made the process so complicated that ordinary citizens, especially the poor and migrant workers, are unable to navigate it. The burden has been shifted from the institution to the individual,” he mentioned.
The CPI(ML) Liberation chief mentioned the deletions mirrored a social sample of exclusion, disproportionately affecting susceptible sections.
“Women, the poor, migrant workers, Dalits and possibly Muslims have been most affected,” he mentioned.
“The top three districts with the highest deletions are Gopalganj, Kishanganj and Purnia — two of them Muslim-majority. In Dalit-dominated areas too, large numbers of names have disappeared. These are not random technical errors; these are social patterns of exclusion,” Mr. Bhattacharya added.
He added that stories of round 6,000 voters being deleted on grounds of ‘uncertain citizenship’ raised severe questions in regards to the intent of the train.
“If true, this is alarming. Between 2016 and 2019, the law minister told Parliament there were only three such cases across India, none in Bihar. So how did we suddenly jump to 6,000?” he requested.
He mentioned the SIR controversy went past Bihar.
“If this SIR model is extended to other States, it will become a national method of disenfranchisement. This is not an administrative update; it’s a political experiment in exclusion,” he warned.
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