Kasaragod: CPM state secretariat member M V Jayarajan on Saturday accused Chief Minister V D Satheesan of telling a “blatant lie” by claiming that the CPM had not complained about irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Kerala. He also demanded a probe into the role of Rathan U Kelkar, the Chief Minister’s principal secretary, who was the chief electoral officer during the 2026 Assembly election.

Satheesan had said that neither the BJP nor the CPM had raised complaints about the SIR process in Kerala, arguing that the state’s situation was different from that in states where the BJP had a stake in the electoral outcome.

Jayarajan, however, said the CPM had submitted around a dozen written complaints to the then state Chief Electoral Officer, both online and in writing. He said the party had copies of the complaints and supporting documents.

The complaints, submitted on January 18, January 29 and February 10, 2026, flagged alleged irregularities in the revision process, including suspicious applications to delete eligible voters’ names. Despite these complaints, no proper verification had been conducted, he alleged. Jayarajan accused the Chief Minister of justifying what he called the “butchering of democracy”.

Two types of manipulation
The first type of manipulation involved deleting the names of eligible voters belonging to minority, women and Dalit communities. The second was the exclusion of eligible voters due to the failure to distribute enumeration forms properly, Jayarajan alleged.

He pointed to discrepancies in figures released by the state election office and the Election Commission of India on the distribution of enumeration forms. While the state office reported that forms had reached 99.5% of voters, the Election Commission put the figure at 97.23%.

Nearly seven lakh voters had not received enumeration forms, while 2,13,370 voters could not be traced, he claimed.

Jayarajan also flagged discrepancies in applications to add or delete names and shift voters between constituencies. Around 1.5 lakh applications had been received in six districts, against as many as six lakh in eight other districts, he said, demanding that the Election Commission explain the disparity and publish the details.

More than 26,000 applications had been received in the Uduma Assembly constituency in Kasaragod, which he described as unusual. Around 10,000 applications seeking constituency changes in certain constituencies also warranted scrutiny, he said.
The CPM had sought details of applications submitted through Forms 6, 6A, 7 and 8, covering voter enrolment, overseas electors, objections and deletions, and corrections or changes in electoral roll entries, he said.

Azhikode, an example
Jayarajan alleged that bogus voters had been included in the electoral rolls. In Azhikode Assembly constituency in Kannur, 150 CPM sympathisers had submitted applications to enrol as voters along with supporting documents, but the names of certain voters from other states had appeared in the rolls, he said, referring to a complaint filed by the party.

He also alleged that voters had been registered at addresses corresponding to warehouses, commercial establishments, shopping malls, gymnasiums and vacant plots.

Thirteen voters had been enrolled at the address of a warehouse in Ishala Complex, which houses establishments including Malabar Engineering Agency, he said. The party had submitted documents relating to these alleged irregularities to the Election Commission, but no adequate investigation had followed, Jayarajan claimed. He demanded a probe into the role of election officials and Kelkar, and called for a transparent investigation into the complaints to ensure that eligible voters were not denied their voting rights.