Kozhikode: Four days after polling for the Lok Sabha elections, allegations of cross voting are still doing the rounds in Kerala.
National Democratic Alliance's Kozhikode candidate K P Prakash Babu is the latest claimant.
Babu said the NDA got votes from the backers of Democratic Youth Federation of India's (DYFI) national president P A Mohamed Riyas.
Riyas was the defeated CPM candidate in 2009. Sitting MP M K Raghavan and the current United Democratic Front (UDF) contestant had defeated Riyas by a narrow margin of 838 votes then.
The CPM fielded Kozhikode north MLA Pradeepkumar this time to wrest the seat.
Riyas has dismissed the charges.
He said at first he had chosen to ignore the charges, but after a section of the media backing the UDF started reporting this he realised a conspiracy.
“It was mentioned that followers of Riyas met the NDA candidate. I do not have followers, nobody is a follower, everyone is a worker in our party,” he said.
The UDF is emotionally frustrated after CPM district secretary alleged there was a vote-for-cash deal between the UDF candidate and the BJP in many constituencies, Riyas said.
The current allegation is another proof of the unholy nexus between the BJP and the UDF, he said.
Riyas dared the NDA candidate to reveal names of CPM workers who met the latter.
Babu had made the claim to a news channel on Friday.
Babu's revelations has come in handy for the UDF in Kozhikode as well in the state, as it was facing criticism for alleged secret pact with the BJP-RSS to secure support for Vattiyoorkavu MLA K Muraleedharan in Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency.
The LDF had alleged that UDF's Vadakara candidate K Muraleedharan and Kozhikode candidate MK Raghavan had close links with the BJP-RSS top brass.
Muraleedharan's candidature was the result of a secret pact between the UDF and the BJP, he had charged.
His argument was based on a theory that if Murali wins in Vadakara, the Vattiyoorkavu Assembly constituency would become vacant and the UDF will then back the BJP candidate in the by-election.
KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran and Kozhikode District Congress Committee president T Siddique countered Mohanan's allegations.
Mullappally said that the BJP's only aim was to reduce the number of seats of Congress and they have a secret pact with the LDF.
Siddique said that the reactions of the CPM leaders show that they were desperate after heavy polling was reported during the Lok Sabha elections held in the state on April 23.
