Thiruvananthapuram: A controversy over bogus voting has put a shadow on the euphoria about record polling in the Kerala elections, with Opposition parties accusing the CPI-M led ruling front of attempts to rig the poll.
The trouble started with local television channels airing footage of bogus voting by alleged Left supporters in the northern constituencies of Kasargod and Kannur. Kannur has been notorious for the CPI-M ‘party villages’ where other parties find it difficult to even find polling agents.
The footage shows some people casting their votes multiple times in Kannur and Kasargod constituencies. The video went viral as all other channels also picked up the feed. The visuals showed a woman casting her vote twice, while another person is seen casting a bogus vote using an identity card provided allegedly by a CPI-M agent. Some videos have also surfaced showing the presence of party functionaries inside the booth.
As the allegation picked up momentum, there were reports of such bogus voting from other constituencies such as Alappuzha and Mavelikkara as well. A municipal councillor of Kayamkulam belonging to the CPI has been accused of voting in two different booths.
The scale of bogus voting may not be such that it can change the result in any of the constituencies in question. But it has left a bad taste in the mouth, especially in view of widespread predictions that the Left Front was set to suffer serious setbacks on account of its adamant stand on the Sabarimala issue, which was in sharp contrast to popular sentiments.
Opposition parties have threatened to take the issue to the Election Commission and if required to the Supreme Court. K Sudhakaran, the firebrand Congress candidate in Kannur, says the party has asked for the recording of the webcasting in all sensitive booths. Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala has claimed that the ruling front supporters may have cast up to 5,000 bogus votes in Kasargod alone, where the Congress party is seeking to wrest the seat from CPI-M.
The Marxists have, however, denied the allegation, saying they don’t need to resort to bogus voting to win. Some even suggested that the videos may have been doctored, but the claim did not appear to be founded on concrete evidence. State Chief Electoral Officer Tika Ram Meena says he has asked the district collectors, who are charge of elections, in both
Kannur and Kasargod to submit a detailed report and has promised stern action against erring officials as well as the bogus voters. State BJP president PS Sreedharan Pillai, who has had a running feud with Meena, has accused the EC of failure to properly supervise elections in the state.
The unsavoury controversy has provided the ideal backdrop to prime minister Narendra Modi’s targetted attack on CPI-M and Trinamool Congress. Addressing a rally ahead of the crucial fourth phase of polling, Modi said that the BJP workers in Bengal and Kerala stepped out of their homes for party work without any guarantee that they would return safely.
He was specifically referring to an incident in West Bengal in which a BJP worker’s body was found hanging from a tree, with warnings written on his dress, as well as heightened political violence in Kannur and Kasargod districts of Kerala, in which adversaries are ruthlessly murdered.
Congress and the UDF had projected political murders as their main campaign plank, especially in Kannur, where the CPI-M candidate is an accused in a murder case.
Kannur has a history of political murders, allegedly carried out by the communists, with protection from the party leadership. The situation there is said to be so terrible that bogus voting and intimidation of polling agents would be deemed as much lesser evils.
