Bogus voting: P B Abdul Razak keeps cool, says allegations are bogus

KASARGOD: Manjeshwaram MLA P.B. Abdul Razak on Monday dismissed the reports that he was planning to quit and face by-election on the background of BJP state general secretary K. Surendran filing a petition that he lost due to bogus votes cast in the constituency during the last Assembly election. Mr Razak said that the bogus vote claims by the BJP are to tarnish the IUML and upset the communal harmony of the place. He added that the party, as well as himself, had not considered about resignation yet and the IUML had not taken the bogus vote issue seriously, he told reporters here.

Mr Surendran had lost to Mr Razak by  a margin of 89 votes. He challenged the election victory of Mr Razak and filed a petition seeking to declare the election as null and void. The declaration of the results had been materially affected by the improper reception of void votes, he alleged. Mr Razak on Monday said that the case is being considered by the court and will react more after the verdict comes.

According to the petition by Mr Surendran, many persons who were included in the voters’ list were not alive on the date of the polling. However,  votes were polled in their names in the polling booths. "It was reliably understood that those votes were  falsely cast by impersonation at the behest of the UDF candidate and were recorded in his favour,"  Mr Surendran had argued. Some of the voters included in the list were not in India or not in Kerala on the polling date. But their votes were cast. A total of 291 votes polled were bogus, he alleged.