EC initiates case against Kerala CPI(M) leader for revealing manipulations in 1989 Alappuzha votes

Thiruvananthapuram: Veteran CPI(M) leader and former minister in Kerala G Sudhakaran has revealed that his party made manipulations in the postal votes during the 1989 Lok Sabha polls in Alappuzha in Kerala.

With the election commission taking up the revelation seriously, the state chief electoral officer Rathan U Kelkar directed the Alappuzha district collector and election officer to initiate a case and take immediate action. A team of officials recorded Sudhakaran's statement on Thursday.

The fresh developments has become a major embarrassment for the CPI(M) especially at the national level as the opposition parties were alleging that the BJP was indulging in election malpractices.

Reacting to Sudhakaran's statement, Congress Kerala president Sunny Joseph said that it was widely known fact that the CPI(M) used to indulge in election malpractice.

Sudhakaran made the controversial revelation while speaking at a function of the non-gazetted officers' union in Alappuzha on Wednesday. "While service organization leader K V Devadas contested in the Alappuzha Lok Sabha polls, I was the election committee secretary. Some of us then opened the postal ballots and made alterations as around 15 percent of members in the service organisation were then against Devadas," Sudhakaran said. He had also said that he didn't mind facing any legal action for those remarks.

The chief electoral officer said in a statement that the election commission was viewing with utmost seriousness Sudhakaran’s revelation that postal

votes were tampered with and manipulated. Tampering with and altering postal votes constitutes a grave violation of the law under Sections 135, 135A,

136 and 128 of the Representation of the People Act, the Conduct of Elections Rules and relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Hence a detailed investigation will be conducted into the matter.

Subsequent to the election commission's decision to initiate a case, Sudhakaran made a somersault. He said at a function on Thursday that he just made a figurative remark that postal ballots were manipulated. The CPM never did any such manipulations, he added.