KOZHIKODE: ‘Few simple procedural lapses’ regarding her educational qualification and missing of Rs 10 lakh from election expenditure statement five years ago while submitting the financial and personal details to Election Commission in 2011 have landed minister for scheduled tribes and youth affairs P.K. Jayalakshmi in trouble, just before her second innings this year.
Mananthavady sub-collector Seeram Sambasiva Rao who is also the returning officer of the Mananthavadi legislative constituency had issued a notice to her on Wednesday directing her to appear before the Election Commission with supporting documents to prove her educational qualification and financial statement, after a direction of High Court to examine the veracity of the allegations raised against her.
It was a complaint filed by K.P. Jeevan, a CPM worker in Mananthavady constituency to returning officer in September 2012 that exposed the anomalies in the affidavit.
Mr Jeevan told DC that by showing her highest educational qualification as ‘BA from Kannur University -2004,' she had deliberately hidden the facts that she did not complete the studies and her highest qualification is only Plus-2.
She should have referred it as BA (Completed) or BA (Failed). But her hiding of facts created an image that she is an educated graduate which helped her to bag many votes,” he added.
Another point Mr Jeevan raised in the complaint was that in the election expenditure submitted by her to EC is missing details of Rs 10 lakh transferred to her State Bank of India account at Mananthavadi from the party account of Congress whereas her statement says she had spent only Rs 3,95,162.
“I don’t know why she missed it as a candidate can spend up to Rs 15 lakh for the election campaign,” asks Jeevan. It was the failure of EC to act against the minister in time that led him to approach HC few months back.
However, Ms Jayalakshmi is confident that she has evidence to prove her innocence. She said the HC had already dismissed the case, and the present controversy was aimed at just for propaganda.
