The Hindu (Kochi)

Cong. leaders move HC seeking steps for free and fair polls

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Congress leaders Sha€ Parambil and Varkala Kahar approached the Kerala High Court on Tuesday with petitions for deploying Central forces in the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituen­cy and preventing the voters in the Attingal constituen­cy who have been enlisted twice on the voters list from voting in more than one booth respective­ly.

K. Praveenkum­ar, chief election agent of Mr. Parambil, UDF candidate in Vadakara, sought the deployment of Central forces in all booths and video recording of the polling process in full as he apprehende­d that Communist Party of India (Marxist) cadres would attack voters and rival party workers on the polling day.

He alleged that the CPI (M) cadres used to cast bogus votes of the dead and those who were abroad or working elsewhere. The majority of the polling booths were either sensitive or hyper sensitive and hence the polling process had to be videograph­ed in full, he contended.

He apprehende­d that police o›cers owing allegiance to the CPI(M) would not take eective action and hence Central forces should be deployed in all booths to ensure a free and fair election. He also mentioned about the recent bomb blast in Panoor.

Double entries

In a separate petition, Mr. Kahar, the chief election agent of UDF candidate Adoor Prakash in the Attingal constituen­cy, sought to challenge the reported double entries on the voters’ list.

He sought a directive to the Election Commission to ensure that voters listed twice were not allowed to cast their votes in more than one place. He alleged that there were 13,93,134 voters on the €nal voters’ list prepared for the constituen­cy.

Despite complaints, 1,61,237 double entries remained on the list.

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