Burqa row rocks Kannur on the eve of repoll

KANNUR: On the eve of the repoll in seven polling booths in

Kannur

and Kasaragod

Lok Sabha

constituencies, a ‘

burqa

row’ has rocked Kannur, with CPM

Kannur district

secretary MV Jayarajan saying that if burqa-clad female voters are asked to reveal their face to capture it in camera while standing in queue and casting their vote, it would help reduce bogus votes.

Though the Congress and the IUML have come forward with sharp criticism saying that the comment has exposed the communalism within the CPM the Election Commission has apparently supported this and the officials said voters wearing the veil would be checked at the polling stations where repolling is being held on Sunday. A female official would be appointed in the booth for this purpose said

Kasaragod district

collector D Sajith Babu said the voters with covered face would be examined by a female official in the polling booth.

It was during an election campaign meeting in Pilathara in the district on May 17 that he made this remark, in a veiled attack on the IUML. Jayarajan said if it is made mandatory that the people standing in queue and voting with purdhah are asked to uncover their face and it is captured in the CCTV camera, it would prevent bogus vote. He also asked if the Election Commission was ready for that.

Meanwhile, demanding the CPM leader to withdraw the statement and apologise, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said it is the freedom of an individual to decide what dress one should wear and nobody has any right to interfere.

“The CPM leaders have lost their mental balance as they are making such comments to cover the embarrassment that the communal minorities have left them,” he said in a statement.

The IUML also lambasted the CPM and said the communalism sleeping within the communist mind has come to the fore with the statement of Jayarajan.

Of the seven booths, in Kasaragod and Kannur Lok Sabha constituencies, where repolling is being held, six booths are in Kannur district.

Meanwhile, MV Jayarajan justified his demand and said that the demand to ask the voters should remove their veil and show their face while casting their vote was completely as per law and it was justified.

“As per law, the officials and polling agents should be able to compare the face in the voters’ list with the original face but when the LDF polling agents challenged the women coming for polling with covered face at Puthiyangadi and Pamburuthy, some of them did not agree,” he said.