Opposition Leader V.D. Satheesan has demanded a comprehensive probe by an independent agency into what he alleged was an unprecedented bad organisation of the Lok Sabha polls in Kerala.
Addressing a press conference at his office at North Paravur, Mr. Satheesan accused the Election Commission of having miserably failed in ensuring free and fair election in the State. In many places, voters had to queue up for hours, many returned after being fed up and many who returned to the booths weren’t able to vote.
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He asked, “Why was there so much time lag between voting of two voters in select places. Why polling had to extend as late as 10 p.m. even in polling booths without not too many voters. Whether there was a deliberate attempt to delay voting during day time. Did officials deliberately sabotage voting and whether there was any direction to that effect. All these things should be investigated.”.
“Never before had the Electronic Voting Machines developed snags in such a widespread manner. Thirty minutes to an hour was lost in repairing them but polling time was not extended to compensate for that lost time in voting. The Election Commission did nothing to address the shortcomings despite lodging repeated complaints. Why did the Commission spent crores to maximise voter turnout when they couldn’t even make adequate arrangement. Polling officials were unaccountable.”
Mr. Satheeshan accused that the Commission even failed to publish a clean voter’s list removed of doubling of names, deceased voters, and voters who were not residing in an area for six months. Why no action was taken against the Block level officers who failed to report these shortcomings.
He shot down the query whether the complaint about the conduct of election was borne out of concern over impending defeat. “This is to ensure that such a badly managed election never again happen in Kerala,” he said.
Mr. Satheeshan repeated the allegation that the LDF Convenor E.P. Jayarajan had held talks with the BJP Prabhari Prakash Javadekar with the knowledge of the Chief Minister. That’s why he didn’t blame Mr. Jayarajan over meeting Mr. Javadekar but pulled him up over his acquaintance with Nandakumar, a self-styled power broker. “Why no complaint was made to the CPI(M) central leadership about Mr. Jayarajan’s relation with Nandakumar and why Mr. Jayarajan was censored by the party State Secretariat.”
UDF will win all 20 seats in Kerala. Every single narrative set by the UDF during the election has proved to be right, including the hate campaign by the BJP, people’s ire against the State government and the clandestine nexus between the CPI(M) and the BJP in Kerala, he added.
“So much rot has set in CPI(M) with senior leaders, including the Chief Minister, freely holding discussions with the BJP without ever being pulled up.”
