Satheesan seeks probe into ‘bad organisation of polls’
Leader of the Opposition 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 elections in Kerala.
Addressing the media at his oce in 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 were not able to vote.
‘Lag between voting’
“Why was there so much time lag between voting of two voters in select places? Why polling had to be extended as late as 10 p.m. even in booths with not too many voters? Was there a deliberate attempt to delay voting during daytime? Did ocials deliberately sabotage voting, and was there any direction to that eect? All these things should be investigated,” he said.
“Never before had electronic voting machines developed snags in such a widespread manner. Thirty minutes to an hour was
V.D. Satheesan
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 repeated complaints. Why did the Commission spent crores to maximise voter turnout when it couldn’t even make adequate arrangement? Polling ocials were unaccountable,” he added.
Mr. Satheesan alleged that the Commission had even failed to publish a clean voters’ 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 block-level ocers 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. Satheesan reiterated the allegation that LDF convenor E.P. Jayarajan had held talks with 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 selfstyled 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?” he asked.
Optimistic
The UDF will win all 20 seats in the State. Every single narrative set by the UDF during the election has proved 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 the CPI(M) with senior leaders, including the Chief Minister, freely holding discussions with the BJP without ever being pulled up,” Mr. Satheesan said.