CPI(M) won’t defend bogus voting: Kodiyeri

Refutes Chandy’s charges of deletion of names from voters’ list

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) will not protect those facing charges of bogus voting, party State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has said.

Briefing reporters about the decisions of a State secretariat meeting here on Friday, Mr. Balakrishnan said the party had not asked anyone to cast fake or bogus votes. But he clarified that the concept of bogus vote was not correct.

A person could only cast the vote of a person who figures on the voters’ list and the complaints are mostly of impersonation, he said.

Postal vote issue

Regarding the complaint of postal vote in the police, Mr. Balakrishnan said there were clear guidelines for casting postal votes and action should be taken against those violating it.

Neither the CPI(M) nor the Left Democratic Front had entrusted anyone to collect the postal votes, Mr. Balakrishnan said.

Baseless charges

Referring to former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s allegation that 10 lakh voters had been deleted from the electoral roll, Mr. Balakrishnan said the powers for adding and deleting names were vested with the Election Commission and the State government and the CPI(M) had no role in it.

It was unbecoming for a leader of Mr. Chandy’s stature to raise such charges against the CPI(M), he said.

Justifies CM’s stance

Regarding Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s statement that Chief Electoral Officer Teeka Ram Meena was functioning according to his brief, Mr. Balakrishnan said the Chief Minister was bound to lend support and cooperate with the CEO and hence there was nothing wrong in his statement.

Mr. Balakrishnan called upon party workers to join the pre-monsoon cleaning drive planned by the party on May 18 and 19.