'I'm a Congress supporter,' says Kumari whose name was repeated five times in voters' list

Kumari
Kumari

Kasaragod: In a turn of events, Kumari, whose name was pointed out by Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala as appearing five times in the voters' list, told Manorama News that she is a Congress supporter and her name was added to the electoral roll by local leaders of the party itself.

However, Kumari said she had no clue how her name got repeated in the list published by the election commission.

Citing the voters' list published by the Election Commission on January 20, 2021, Chennithala on Wednesday said bogus voters have been added extensively in each constituency across the state.

Accusing the Election Commission of issuing multiple voter identity cards to the same person in the same constituency, Chennithala cited the example of Kumari, a 61-year-old voter in the Uduma segment in northern Kasaragod district, who had allegedly been given five identity cards.

To prove his point, the leader shared the serial numbers and voter identity card numbers of all the five cards issued to her.

There were instances of the name of a person being included in the voters' list of the same constituency five or six times, he told reporters here in a press meet.

Ramesh Chennithala
Ramesh Chennithala speaks at a rally in Malappuram. Photo: Ramesh Chennithala/Facebook

"In most cases, same address and photo have been used for committing the fraud. In some other cases, minor changes have been made in the address and the photo," the senior Congress leader alleged.

Noting that this was not an isolated incident, he said thousands of fake voters have been included in the same manner in each constituency, which is an "organised" attempt to sabotage the electoral process.

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"It is a serious crime which would not be possible without the support of officials who were assigned to prepare voters' list.

He also listed the number of bogus voters in seven constituencies including Kazhakkoottam, where state Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran was seeking a second term.

Chennithala sent a letter to Chief Electoral Officer urging him to scrutinize the voters' list in all the 140 constituencies and remove the names repeated.

He also asked the Election Commission to hold the Assembly polls on April 6 only after removing the fraudulent voters from the list.

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