Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala on Wednesday levelled serious allegations of fraud in the preparation of voters list. He said there was rampant multiplication of voter identities in over 130 constituencies in Kerala.
"The names of a single voter has been included in the voters list of the same constituency four to five times," Chennithala told the media on Wednesday. He said that in most cases, the fraud had been committed using the same name and the same address. "In some areas, we found subtle changes made to the photos and addresses," he said.
To illustrate, he gave the example of a voter in Kasaragod's Uduma constituency. A voter named Kumari, 61 years of age, had been issued five voter ID cards. In all these cards, the photograph, house address and the husband's name are the same. He said this multiplication of a single voter was detected in booth number 164 of Uduma.
Chennithala said this was not a rare occurrence. "Thousands of fakes votes have been included in many constituencies. This is an attempt to sabotage democracy," he said.
To demonstrate the pervasive nature of the electoral fraud, the Opposition Leader listed the number of fake voter IDs in seven major constituencies: Kazhakuttam (where minister Kadakampally Surendran is contesting) - 4506; Kollam (where actor Mukesh is the CPM candidate) - 2534; Thrikkarippur (where sitting CPM MLA M Rajagopalan has been fielded)- 1436; Nadapuram (where E K Vijayan of CPI is the Left candidate)- 6171; Koyilandy (Kanathil Jameela is CPM candidate) - 4611; Koothuparamba (where Lokatantrik Janata Dal's K P Mohanan, who lost to K K Shailaja last time, is the candidate) - 3525; Ambalappuzha (where H Salam has taken over as the CPM candidate from minister G Sudhakaran)- 4750.
He had a sheaf of papers in front of him, in which Chennithala said were proof of more such fake voters. He said he would submit this proof to the Chief Electoral officer right after the media interaction. He said said such a fraud in the voters list of Attingal Lok sabha constituency was pointed out in 2019, and the Election Commission had promptly removed the fake names.
Chennithala termed this "organised fraud". He also said this could not be done without the connivance of officials. “There is serious dereliction of duty on the part of officials who have been tasked with including names in the voters list. It can be justifiably suspected that this had been done by officials close to the ruling party. It is also possible that officials were specially recruited for the purpose,” Chennithala said.
In response, Kadakampally Surendran said that the Opposition Leader himself would have included these names in the voters list. “This could be why he could given out exact figures,” Kadakampally said, ridiculing Chennithala's charges.
Chennithala did not join issue but just said: “Even if what he said is true, my only demand is that these fake names should be immediately withdrawn from the voters list.”
