Two Kerala parties in Left coalition to merge
Kollam, July 23 : As part of getting a larger share in the spoils of power, the Kerala Congress (Skariah Thomas) and Kerala Congress (B) have decided to merge. The official announcement will be made in the state capital on Tuesday.
While Skariah Thomas is a full-fledged ally of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) led by the CPI-M , the KC (B) led by veteran R. Balakrishna Pillai is only an ally of the Left ever since it broke away from the then ruling Congress-led UDF in 2015.
Thomas and Pillai on Monday met Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan here and the green signal for their decision was given.
"The Chief Minister is our leader and it's quite natural we discuss all things with him," Thomas told the media.
While Thomas' party has no legislator, Pillai's party has one, which is his son K.B. Ganesh Kumar.
Presently, the LDF has six constituents and all of them have been given cabinet berths.
The seven friendly allies include the National Secular Conference, Kerala Congress-B, Communist Marxist Party-A and Revolutionary Socialist Party-Leninist (all have a legislator each) while the Janadhipathya Samrakshana Samithi-Gowri, Indian National League and Kerala Congress-Democratic are currently unrepresented in the Assembly.
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EC publishes list of voters deleted from draft electoral rolls in Bengal under SIR 2026
Kolkata (PTI): Barely hours ahead of the publication of the draft electoral rolls of West Bengal, where assembly elections are due early next year, the Election Commission on Tuesday morning released the names of deleted voters on its website.
The list features voters whose names were included in the electoral rolls of the state in 2025 but were deleted from the draft rolls of 2026.
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The list is currently available on the commission's portal link ceowestbengal.wb.gov.in/asd_sir.
The number of "uncollectable SIR enumeration forms", according to commission sources, exceeds 58 lakh, and were deleted on grounds of either remaining absent from their registered addresses, permanently shifted, dead or marked as 'duplicate' voters in more than one constituencies.
"Aggrieved persons can submit their claims in Form 6 along with the Declaration Form and supporting documents after publication of draft roll during the period fixed for receiving claims and objections i.e. 16/12/2025 till 15/01/2026," the commission website stated.
Elections to the 294-member West Bengal Assembly are due early next year.
