KASARGOD: The IUML has punched holes in the list of purported fake voters submitted to the Kerala High Court by BJP’s losing candidate in Manjeshwaram K Surendran. He had challenged the election citing bogus voting.
“You should ignore the sound and fury the BJP creates on social media. The fact is the list submitted by Surendran is riddled with discrepancies,” MLA P B Abdul Razak, who defeated the BJP leader by 89 votes in Manjeshwaram, said.
On Monday, Hamid Kunhi of Bakarabayal village in Vorkardy panchayat, received summons from the Kerala High Court to appear before it on Thursday (June 15). According to the list submitted by the BJP, Hamid Kunhi is dead. He said he would go to the court.
Surendran had claimed the dead too voted in Manjeshwaram, to drive home the point massive bogus voting had taken place in the constituency, the MLA said. “But, in the list of six voters he declared as dead to the High Court, four are alive,” Razak said. Of the two persons who are dead, vote had been cast in the name of one, he said.
He said Surendran initially had submitted a list with 291 names to the High Court. Eight names were repeated in the list, bringing down the number to 283, he said. But when the court and returning officers examined the list, they found 24 persons had not cast their votes at all, Razak said. So the court decided to summon the rest of the 259 persons in the list.
However, Razak said, of the 259 persons, Surendran had claimed 88 persons were double voters, that is their names have figured in two voters’ lists. “You don’t need a year to find the double voters in the list. A ‘control F’ can throw up the result. But the BJP has not been able to submit the voters’ lists to the court yet,” he said.In the list, Surendran has named 197 persons as non-resident Indians who had not returned to vote. “But from that list too, the BJP could prove only 20 bogus voting,” he said.
In all, the BJP had alleged bogus voting in 39 booths; 44 booths in Manjeshwaram panchayat, four in Vorkady panchayat, 155 in Mangalpady panchayat, 16 in Paivalige, 23 in Kumbla and 17 in Enmakje panchayat. The hearing of the suspect voters will be on till July 4.