More than 4 lakh fake voters in Kerala elecoral rolls, aleges LOP

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (March 21, HS): Massive fraud in Kerala electoral rolls may lead to even postponement of the April 6 assembly election in the State. This was stated by Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala on Sunday. He said the CPI(M) has incorporated more than four lakh fake names in 130 assembly constituencies across the State to subvert the will and decision of the voters.

“I have met the Chief Election Commissioner  and handed over the relevant documents to him. We have submitted details of inclusion of more than 2.5 lakh fake voters in 60 assembly constituencies. The remaining details in 69 constituencies would be handed over to the ECI on Monday,” said Chennithala while speaking to reporters.

The Leader of the Opposition said that at no point of time in Kerala’s history the State has seen voters’ list being manipulated in this scale. “Everything associated with the CPI(M) and the Left Democratic Front is embroiled in corruption. “All Churches in Kollam district on Sunday read out pastoral message from the Bishop alleging massive corruption in the deep sea fishing deal signed between the Government of Kerala and a  US based company. The deal will throw hundreds of thousands of fishermen in the State to deep seas,” charged Chennithala.

He also accused the media in the State of playing as campaign managers of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the CPI(M). The three opinion polls, which do not have any credibility or reliability, held by three different media houses claim that the CPI(M)-led LDF would win big majority in the upcoming election. “All the three opinion polls were held by the same agency for the three different media houses. How can one infer from the opinion of 10,000 persons in the State the results of 140 assembly constituencies?” asked Chennithala.

The Leader of the Opposition said that the Kerala Government has spent Rs 200 crore on advertisements in the last one month. “The State has made use of Rs 57 crore from Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), a State Government owned financial institution, to finance this media show,” he said.

He lambasted anchor persons in three or four news TV channels for openly siding with the CPI(M). Chennithala said there was a concerted move by the media to destroy his political life. Mathrubhumi, a news TV channel telecast a poll survey on Saturday in which only 2.9 per cent voted in his favour while 37.3 per cent voters favoured Pinarayi Vijayan for the top post in the State.

He said that these opinion polls are aired only to confuse the voters and divert the attention from real issues.