ALAPPUZHA: Veteran Communist leaders VS Achuthanandan and KR Gowri who had never missed a chance to vote since the first general elections in India in 1951 were conspicuous by their absence when the district went to the polls on Tuesday. Both had to stay away from the voting process owing to age-related health concerns. Achuthanandan’s son V A Arunkumar told reporters here that his father could not reach the polling station in ward 8 of Punnapra North panchayat, where he regularly casts his vote with his family, as he was unable to travel.
Though the former chief minister had applied for a postal vote, it was rejected by State Election Commission stating that postal votes were only permitted for Covid patients, those in quarantine and polling officials.
Arunkumar and his wife cast their votes. Gowri, who turned 101 this year, has been put under reverse quarantine at her residence in Chathanad. She was also recuperating from a fall which she had a few months ago. She was to exercise her franchise at a booth in JBS Polabhagom in Mannath ward of Alappuzha municipality.