THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Thiruvananthapuram district unit of the BJP has come out with a serious charge of malpractice in the collection of postal votes meant for special voters and accused the ruling CPM of carrying out large-scale manipulation of such votes.
V V Rajesh, BJP district president, said candidates were kept in the dark about the actual number of voters who had either tested positive or were asked to undergo quarantine 10 days prior to the eve of polling. He alleged that polling officials deployed for distribution of postal votes were either Left-affiliated teachers or government officers who are also members of the CPM.
“These Left-backed officials deployed for poll duty cite the privacy of Covid patients as the reason for keeping candidates and political parties in the dark about such special voters. The candidates and political parties are also clueless about who are handling postal ballots after the votes are cast and where such ballots are stored,” Rajesh said in a statement.
The BJP leader said some of these officials, who are allegedly hardcore CPM workers, take custody of the postal ballot after the special voter casts the vote. Even if the special voter says he or she will hand it over directly to the returning officer, the visiting officials do not allow them to do so, he said.
“The candidates or their chief agents are kept in the dark about how many postal votes were printed and how many were actually distributed. It is reliably learnt that a number of postal ballots, much above the actual requirement, were printed to carry out bogus voting,” said Rajesh.
The BJP has accused the State Election Commission too of being hand in glove with the CPM. Rajesh said the ruling party fears a major reversal for it in the local body polls and that the BJP has held numerous rounds of discussions with the district collector and the returning officers.“But none of them were able to explain the exact procedure for postal ballots,” he said.
The BJP district president said the CPM was trying to ensure a win in this election from wards which they lost previously by a slender margin. The party was trying to achieve this objective through large-scale manipulation of postal votes meant for special voters, he said.
“A lack of transparency in postal voting is likely to cause unruly scenes on the counting day. So the state poll panel should make political parties aware of the entire procedure of postal voting and convince them that no malpractice has happened,” Rajesh demanded.