KASARGOD: BJP leader K Surendran said he will not withdraw the petition in the Kerala High Court challenging the Manjeshwaram assembly election result in the wake of the death of the MLA P B Abdul Razak. “I will inform my decision to pursue with the case to the high court day after tomorrow,” he told reporters in Kasargod on Sunday.
On Thursday, the court sought to know if he was winding up the case because of Razak’s death on October 20.
Surendran, who lost the 2016 Assembly election to Razak by 89 votes, had told the court that the IUML leader won because of massive bogus voting. He also gave the court a list of 259 persons, who he claimed were not present in the constituency on the day of polling but votes were cast in their names. Speaking to reporters in Kasargod on Sunday, Surendran said neither the BJP nor he had any intention to delay the case.
“The UDF and the LDF should help find an early closure to the case,” he said. Though the LDF was not a party to the case, it was helping the IUML by trying to stop the witnesses from appearing in court. The government and its police were complicit in it, he alleged. Of the 259 voters he named, the High Court is yet to examine 67, he said. Surendran, who is the party’s state general secretary, expressed confidence once the examination of all the witnesses was over, he will win the case.
Earlier in the day, Surendran called on the bereaved family of Abdul Razak and expressed his condolences.
‘LDF Govt declared war on Ayyappa devotees’
Kasargod: The LDF government has declared war on the Ayyappa devotees in the state, alleged BJP state general secretary K Surendran. BJP will stand by devotees and would go to any extent to protect their interest, he told reporters here. He said Amit Shah was the BJP’s supremo who spelt out the party’s policies, and he completely agreed with what Shah said on Saturday. While inaugurating the party’s office Shah had said the BJP workers “would not hesitate to pull down the government” if the crackdown on Ayyappa devotees continued.