Kerala oppn leader alleges rampant irregularities in electoral rolls

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala opposition leader

Ramesh Chennithala

on Wednesday alleged that there were concerted attempts to sabotage the April 16 assembly election with large scale duplication of names in the voters' list. He released a list of alleged

bogus

entries in electoral lists in several constituencies, published by the election commission on January 20.

Chief electoral officer

Teeka Ram Meena

, on the basis of a complaint from Chenithala, sought a report from district collectors -- who are also the district electoral officers -- by March 20. He has also instructed immediate legal action in case the charges are found true.

Chennithala told a news conference that the "bogus names" were revealed when Congress workers examined the voters' list. There were instances of a person been added four-five times in the voters' list. The same photo and address were used for duplication in many cases while in some there has been slight change in the address in duplicate entries, he claimed.

"Congress activists could find 4,506 bogus voters in Kazhakootam constituency, 4,672 in

Vattiyoorkavu

, 2,534 in

Kollam

, 1,436 in

Trikaripur

, 4,611 in Koyilandy, 6,171 in Nadapuram, 3,225 in Koothuparamba and 4,750 in Ambalappuzha. Bogus voters have been added in this manner in all 140 constituencies in the state," he said.

Chennithala alleged a conspiracy behind the entries, saying such bogus addition cannot be carried out without the knowledge or connivance of officials deputed for updating the voters' list.TNN