BJP demands absentee voting for expats in Kerala elections

TRIVANDRUM: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is strongly pitching for allowing the non-resident Indians to cast the postal vote in the state elections.

Representatives of the BJP took up the issue with the Election Commission of India (ECI) members who are in the state to meet the stakeholders made the demand.

“We met the chief election commissioner Sunil Arora and other members of the ECI and raised the demand very strongly,” BJP’S secretary in Kerala, S Suresh, told Gulf Today.

“The commission told us that it was under its active consideration and was waiting for the final nod from concerned authorities for its implementation.”

Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the state’s ruling Communist Party of India ( Marxist), had earlier writen to the CEC opposing the proposal.

Arora who came here along with commissioners Sushil Chandra and Rajiv Kumar and held extensive consultations with officials and representatives of political parties said the ECI was prepared to hold the elections anytime while the parties suggested some time ahead of Ramadan and the local festival of Vishu on April 14.

The commission also announced simultaneous by-election in the Malappuram parliamentary constituency vacated by Muslim League leader PK Kunhalikuty who is now planning to run for the state assembly.

The CEC said people aged above 80 and physically challenged would be allowed to cast postal ballots while the online voting for the NRIS was under consideration.

Kerala is home to a major chunk of Indian workers in the Gulf nations and their vote would influence the outcome of almost all the state’s 140 assembly constituencies.

They can currently enrol as electors online and cast their ballot if they are present in their home constituencies during the polling.

The ECI had recently writen to the federal law ministry to facilitate Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) for NRIS in the upcoming state elections.