Congress releases video of false voting by CPM members in Kerala

Kasaragod: The Congress party has alleged that false voting took place in Kasaragod and Kannur constituencies.  Two women have been accused of bogus voting in Kasaragod constituency. Polling booth officials were allegedly seen being silent spectators to this act. The Congress has released visuals of bogus voting that took place at a polling booth in Pilathara, Kannur.

In the video, people including woman panchayat president and former panchayat member can be seen casting false votes. Saleena PP, a CPI(M) member, is seen casting two votes in the same booth. Another CPI(M) leader Sumayya KP, P Padmini and four others are seen casting more than one vote. Meanwhile, a local leader who was standing at the booth is seen distributing fake voter ID cards.

Congress leader Sudhakaran said that the CPM is responsible for the bogus vote cast in Kasaragod and Kannur. He accused the CPM of following undemocratic practices and said that it was an injustice to the system. “CPM won’t be able to gain more than two seats if it doesn’t resort to bogus voting”, he added.

He then said that he has evidence of bogus votes being cast in earlier elections too. He said that he lost 6,000 votes in the previous election, but an investigation had revealed that 17,403 bogus votes were cast.

Responding to these claims, chief electoral officer Teeka Ram Meena said that he cannot comment now and will speak about it only after the report comes out.

Meena said that if the allegation of the Congress is right then it is a grave offence. He said that an enquiry would be conducted on the same. Meena has asked officials to submit a report on the same. He also said that if the incident actually occurred then it could not have happened without the knowledge of the presiding officer.

He asked the returning officers of Kasaragod and Kannur to look into the issue.

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