By Kavita Mistry 
Thiruvananthapuram: The State Election Commission Kerala on Thursday launched a probe against Kerala Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader and ex-minister G. Sudhakaran, a day after the leader admitted to tampering with postal ballots in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections.
Speaking at an event, Sudhakaran Wednesday made claims of altering postal votes in the 1989 parliamentary polls. The ballots for opposition candidates were, he claimed, changed in favour of the then-CPIM candidate of Alappuzha, K.V. Devadas. Sudhakaran, at that time, was the secretary of the party’s election committee.
However, Congress’s Vakkom Purushothaman, in 1989, defeated Devadas in Alappuzha though by a small margin of 25,123 votes.
CPIM leader Sudhakaran, who hails from Alappuzha, made the “big reveal” before ex-members of the NGO Union in Alappuzha—who organised the event. NGO Union is a Left-leaning organisation representing non-gazetted State employees.
At the event, Sudhakaran, also the Public Works Department (PWD) minister in the first Pinarayi cabinet of 2016-2021, said that the NGO Union members need not vote for the Left. Discounting their political affiliation, he said they, however, should openly tell which party candidate they support.
“Do not do a postal ballot; give it to us if you vote for others. Post it yourself. Do not think it will be left unopened—even if sealed. We will open it. When K.V. Devadas contested as the candidate here [Alappuzha], we opened all the postal votes. Fifteen percent of the members [of service organisations] had voted for the other party. We altered them,” Sudhakaran boasted.
On Wednesday afternoon, a team of election commission officials and Ambalappuzha tahsildar Anvar reached Sudhakaran’s house in the district and recorded his statements. Afterwards, an official said the team would submit a report to the district collector soon, and the collector would decide on further action.
Sudhakaran responded to the probe, saying he was not afraid.
“I am not scared. I have not committed any murders. Let the collector take action,” the leader told media persons.
However, the incident has led to widespread criticism from the opposition leaders of Congress. Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Sunny Joseph said that the CPIM had always practised electoral fraud.
“We have been saying this for a long time, especially that election manipulation is the CPIM’s biggest tactic. Sudhakaran’s statement is a big reveal. There should be action against this,” Sunny Joseph said.
However, the CPIM denied any such malpractices. “It can never happen. Once a postal ballot is open, the vote becomes invalid. If he is saying that he has done it, let him give the proof. He might have said it in the spirit of the event. It was unnecessary.”
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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