Visuals showed a Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) leader recording the vote of a 92-year-old woman in Kalliaseri Panchayat of Kannur, Kerala. Election officials had reached the village to facilitate voting for a lady named Devi as part of the facility for those above 85 to vote at home. However, the CPM leader fraudulently voted in the meantime.
CCTV footage of the incident showed CPM’s former branch secretary and booth agent, Ganeshan, voting. Kannur District Collector Arun K Vijayan IAS suspended the Special Polling Officer, Polling Assistant Micro Observer, Special Police Officer and Videographer in the incident. These polling officers did not prevent outside interference in the voting process.
A complaint was filed at Kannapuram police station. An inquiry and departmental action has been recommended against these officials. Kalliaseri self-government officials should take criminal action against the person who acted against the law through the City Police Commissioner.
The Collector informed that there had been a violation of Section 171C of the Indian Penal Code and promised departmental action against other officials. Booth agents are assigned to ensure that votes are recorded correctly, but this was misused.
Kannur UDF candidate K Sudhakaran accused the CPM of misusing the vote-at-home scheme. “They are just doing what they learned. False voting and violence are their nature, and they cannot change it.”
“The fact is that the Congress booth agents are not informed when polling is conducted for those above 85 years of age. Left-leaning officials are playing politics and colluding to cast fake votes. You have to remember when this started.”
“It is a relief that action has been taken against five officials for fraudulent voting. Elderly voting should be 100% secure. Sudhakaran said that CPM came out with such fake votes when many predictions came out that UDF would get 20 seats (in Kerala).” (Most opinion polls have predicted around 400 seats for the NDA nationally and at least five in Kerala.)
In Kannur, Sudhakaran faces CPM stalwart MV Jayarajan and C Raghunathan from the BJP.
CPM is proving time and again that it is a party that distorts facts and creates communal strife in the public for a few votes. For this, they have chosen areas in Kerala where religious ‘minorities’ are a majority.
Particular attention is being paid to holding special meetings in these sensitive places, including Eratupetta. The CPM has concentrated its election campaign activities in Eratupetta in the Kottayam district.
Since there is no development, the party is trying to spread communal poison in Eratupetta. CPM state secretariat member and serial Hindu-hater M. Swaraj himself was designated for this purpose.
Green communists and extremists are holding night marches in Erattupetta. Swaraj protested against the Citizenship Act, which was ‘tearing India apart,’ and against the ‘atrocities’ being committed against Christians in Manipur. Apart from repeating these two lies, Swaraj did not explain how the Citizenship Amendment Act is tearing India apart or what is going on in Manipur.
Eratupetta, which is a Muslim-majority area, is also an influential area for Christians. The party is focusing on Eratupetta with such hate campaigns targeting their votes. More leaders like Swaraj are being brought in in the coming days.
Erattupetta in Poonjaar constituency falls under the Kottayam seat. Kerala Congress (Mani) or KEC(M), currently led by chairman Jose K. Mani’s candidate Thomas Chazhikadan, represents the communists. He faces Kerala Congress (a political outfit founded in Kottayam) leader K Francis George (UDF-aligned) and Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) national secretary Thushar Vellappally, representing the NDA.
Ideologically reduced to ashes and routed elsewhere in Bharat, it is feared the communists will use every dirty trick in the book to try and tamper with our democratic process.
