SNDV to move court for ‘fair’ Yogam polls

Vellappally manipulated polls all these years, says Gokulam Gopalan

Sree Narayana Dharma Vedi (SNDV), an organisation floated by former Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam office-bearers who fell out with Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan, has said that it will move court to see that elections to the Yogam's top posts are held in a fair and democratic manner.

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, SNDV chairman Gokulam Gopalan and convener M.B. Sreekumar said Mr. Natesan would not be allowed to “manipulate the polls as he had done all these years.” A legal battle would be launched to ensure this. Confessing that he too had been party to Mr. Natesan's manipulations when he was part of the Yogam, Mr. Sreekumar said the polls were always anti-democratic.

Dual roles

Mr. Sreekumar also alleged that after every election Mr. Natesan would clandestinely make one of his cronies file a case on its conduct, and then make sure that he won the case so that none could find fault with the polls. This way, Mr. Natesan was always both the petitioner and the accused. Things would be different now and Mr. Natesan would be only the accused, he said.

Demands

The SNDV has filed a case, demanding that the elections should be held at the Yogam headquarters at Kollam; that every Yogam member with voting rights should be given an identity card; and that the elections should be held in the presence of an independent judicial officer or commissioner, Mr. Gopalan said.

Claiming that 75 per cent of the Yogam's unions were with the SNDV, Mr. Gopalan said the Vedi would not contest at the union or branch level, but only to the leadership posts of the Yogam.

Mr. Gopalan also accused Mr. Natesan of seeing the SNDP Yogam as his personal asset, citing a case filed by Mr. Natesan against the Vedi to stop the SNDV from using the name of the Yogam.