The United Democratic Front on Monday rejected the government decision to order a Crime Branch probe into the allegations against leaders of the Kerala Police Association regarding manipulation of postal ballots of policemen on election duty.
The UDF High Power Committee, which met here, said in a resolution that it did not have any faith in the Crime Branch probe. It demanded a more comprehensive inquiry into the issue . The meeting decided to pursue all options, including legal, to expose the manipulation by pro-Left leaders of the police association.
The UDF leadership admitted organisational lapses in detecting last-minute deletion of voters from the final electoral rolls. It decided to entrust its district liaison committees to handle complaints.
Welcomes steps
The meeting welcomed the steps taken by Chief Electoral Officer Teeka Ram Meena with regard to bogus votes but did not venture to support all his actions, particularly related to complaints about postal votes. These had been brought to the CEO’s notice but he did not take prompt action.
‘Will win 20 seats’
Addressing a press conference after the meeting, Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala said the UDF was expecting to win all the 20 seats despite the electoral malpractices of the CPI(M).
The Modi and Pinarayi governments had no qualms in misusing administrative machinery for the elections. The change in poll time also facilitated polling of bogus votes, which were mostly cast during the last hour before polling ended at 6 pm.
The Left Democratic Front government had blatantly misused power, using its service organisations to tamper with electoral rolls.
The meeting also criticised the State government for going for the masala bond issue and virtually pushing the State into a debt trap.
The bonds had been floated to assist SNC Lavalin, with whom the Chief Minister, it seems, continued to have an affectionate bond, Mr. Chennithala said.