Poll pundits and political analysts in Kerala were flabbergasted as Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala late Wednesday night uploaded the names of 4.3 lakh bogus voters and multiple entries on a website.
Chennithala had filed an appeal in the Kerala High Court seeking deleting or freezing the fake and counterfeit names in the electoral rolls. Earlier in the day, a Division Bench consisting of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly directed the Election Commission to permit voters to leave the polling booths only after the indelible ink is dried.
Kerala goes to the polls on April 6 to elect the 140 member Legislative Assembly in a single phase polling. Though Chennithala said there were only 4.3 lakh fake voters in the rolls, Prof Stanly Sebastian, an educational entrepreneur-cum-social activist claims there are more than 20 lakh fake voters in the State’s electoral rolls.
The CPI(M) which has gone on the defensive following the disclosures by the Leader of the Opposition said the party would initiate criminal action against Chennithala for disclosing State Secrets in the public domain.
M A Baby, polit bureau member, who is the chief ideologist of the party, said that Chennaithala would have to face legal action for uploading the names of 4.3 lakh fake voters in a website by name operationtwins.com. “Who authorised Chennithala to upload the names of such voters in a portal? Has he taken the permission from the voters before disclosing the names through the portal,” asked Baby, a Marxist leader held in high reverence by the party cadre.
N Gopalaswamy, former Chief Election Commissioner, told The Pioneer that there was no chance of the court intervening in the issue at this juncture. “The Chief Electoral Officer has to reply to this charge. How this many names were included in the electoral roles? What was the CEO doing all these months?” asked the former CEC.
G Rajagopal, counsel for the ECI said the situation was very grave but one the poll process begins nothing could be done to stop it. “The only option is to ensure that the fake voters who managed to get into the rolls do not cast the votes,” said Rajagopal.
The view was echoed by K Ramkumar, senior advocate, Kerala High Court. He was of the view that it was not possible to hold fair election based on the rolls prepared by the CEO.
“I am shocked at the indifference shown by the officials while preparing the electoral rolls. There is widespread irregularities in this list but at this juncture, it is too late to go for any legal recourse. There is a political party in the State, the cadre of which are past masters in casting fake votes,” said Ramkumar, State’s leading civil rights activist. There are 2.67 crore voters in the State, out of which 1.37 are females and 1.29 males.
Tikka Ram Meena, CEO, who is known for his close contacts with the chief minister, feigned ignorance about how this many names found their way to the rolls. Prof Sebastian said he has been alerting all concerned, including the Chief Election Commissioner, PMO, home minister, chief minister of Kerala and all political parties about this discrepancy since 2018.
