Alleging rampant electoral irregularities in the district, the United Democratic Front (UDF) on Thursday raised serious allegations including impersonation behind such fraudulent activities that threatened to scuttle the electoral process.
V.S. Sivakumar, Veena S. Nair and S.S. Lal, the Congress’ candidates in Thiruvananthapuram, Vattiyurkavu and Kazhakuttam constituencies respectively, alleged here that numerous bogus entries had crept into multiple voters’ list in various constituencies in the district.
A day after Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala raised claims of multiple entries of voter names in the electoral rolls within a constituency or spread across two or more constituencies, the Congress candidates alleged graver charges. They claimed the presence of multiple entries in different lists with the same photos, but with different names, addresses and identification card numbers.
Citing examples, Mr. Sivakumar said there were voters who figured in four or five electoral lists in different constituencies with different credentials. He claimed that the UDF could identify 8,400, 7,600 and 6,360 such instances in Vattiyurkavu, Thiruvananthapuram and Nemom respectively.
“These irregularities could have been done by CPI(M)-affiliated officials without the voters’ knowledge. The identification documents could have been forged for the purpose,” Ms. Nair said.
Variation in details
At a separate media briefing, Dr. Lal too alleged similar discrepancies in the electoral rolls in his constituency. A scrutiny by the UDF identified multiple entries in the case of 460 voters there. It also revealed cases where the names and photographs of the voters were repeated, but with variation in details such as addresses as similar to the other Assembly segments. A preliminary assessment has revealed 12,000 to 15,000 such cases, he said, while accusing the CPI(M) and the BJP of trying to sabotage the election process.
The candidates urged the Election Commission to scrutinise the electoral rolls and weed out bogus voters prior to the polls. The UDF also submitted a complaint with evidence of multiple entries later in the day.
