Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala on Thursday approached the Kerala High Court seeking a directive to the Election Commission and the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of the State to take immediate steps to delete or freeze the fake and multiple entries of names on the final electoral roll published for the Assembly polls.

He said that that physical survey of residences of voters and an in-depth study of the final electoral roll published on January 20, 2021, through software were conducted by an expert team of his party, following large-scale complaints of bogus voters.

Duplication

The study had found that the final electoral roll contained duplication of names, fake entries, and enrolment of a single voter in many booths in one assembly constituency as well as in various other constituencies. As many as 3,24,441 duplications of names and 1,09,601 bogus votes were detected in the final roll spread across 131 Assembly constituencies by the expert team.

Mr. Chennithala said that manipulations in the electoral rolls were made possible not due to any isolated acts of any individuals. It was understood that some organised government employees were behind the manipulation to give undue political advantage to certain parties.

In a State where the government changed every five years, the voting difference between the two coalition fronts was very negligible. Therefore, the manipulation of 4,34,042 lakh votes would have a very significant impact on the the election results.

Irregularities

In fact, he had given a complaint to the CEO in this regard. However, the CEO had not taken any action on his complaint regarding the gross irregularities in the electoral rolls.

He pointed out that the false entries were made possible either by giving false declarations by voters or with the connivance of the electoral officers. In fact, giving a false declaration was an offence while preparing such kind f electoral roll amounted to a breach of official duty by the officials. But, in view of the specific provisions in the Representation of People Act, 1950, no prosecution could be initiated without the sanction of the Election Commission.

Mr. Chennithala also sought a directive to the Election Commission to initiate criminal action against those responsible for the preparation and revision of such electoral rolls. He also pleaded to restrain those with multiple entries of names from voting in the Assembly elections scheduled on April 6,