Thiruvananthapuram: Bogus voting is an open secret

Thiruvananthapuram: It is an open secret that fake voting had been the order of the day in Kan-nur and Kasaragod, CPM strongholds, during every election in the past. That went on unchallenged due to fear of retaliation by the Marxists.

However, the CPM was caught on the wrong foot when the Election Comm-ission, with the help of webcasting this time, exposed fake voting in Kannur, bringing jubilation to the Congress and BJP. According to the UDF, the CPM has used money and muscle power to retain Kannur and Kasaragod. Senior Cong-ress leader K. Muraleedharan, who fought the polls from Vatakara, said his constituency did not witness much of fake voting. “Fake votes were polled across the north Malabar region, especially in Kasaragod and Kan-nur, to reduce the Congr-ess majority. The LDF was scared by the scale of minority support to the UDF in these regions,” he said.

But CPM’s Kannur district secretary M. V. Jayarajan rubbished the statement of Mr Mural-eedharan. He told DC that the CPM does not depend on fake votes. “The CPM and the LDF do not dep-end on fake votes though Chief Electoral Officer, Teeka Ram Meena has come out against the CPM,” he said.