Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said on Wednesday that the allegations of vote theft raised by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is not an isolated phenomenon, but part of a widespread attempt to seize power by subverting democracy and the will of the people.
Referring to the allegations of voters’ list rigging that he had raised in 2021 ahead of the Assembly elections, he said that five votes were made in different booths in the name of a single voter in the Uduma constituency in Kasaragod, with five voter ID cards too being issued in her name.
Followed by this, a check conducted by the United Democratic Front (UDF) workers across all constituencies in the State had revealed 4.34 lakh vote duplications or fake votes.
“Although I filed a complaint with the Election Commission with clear evidence, it did not have much effect. Then I approached the Kerala High Court. The Election Commission finally admitted that 38,000 of these votes were duplicate votes. The Election Commission also took the stand that it could not verify the remaining votes due to technical limitations. Subsequently, the High Court ordered on March 31, 2021, to remove the duplicate and to ensure that no fake votes were being cast. It is still not clear how many votes were removed accordingly. The Election Commission has not given me any information in this regard,” he said in a statement.
Published – August 13, 2025 10:46 pm IST
