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Voter
ID cards up for sale in Kerala
K.A. Antony
Kannur,
April 21:
WHY take the trouble of capturing booths when identity cards of
your rival’s supporters can be locked away for the polling
period for a few hundred rupees? Sounds weird? But if the grapevine
is to be believed, muscling into booths is passe.
The in-thing
now is buying and locking up voter ID cards by the dozen as seen
recently in the many Assembly segments of Kerala’s Kannur and
Kasargod districts. UDF leaders alleged that ruling LDF workers,
especially CPI(M) men, were behind the racket. ‘‘They
procure the voter identity cards of adivasis and the poor by paying
Rs 200 to Rs 500. They assure them that the cards would be returned
soon after polling,’’ alleged Congress leader K. Sudhakaran.
| Probe into ‘buying’ by political parties |
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
Kannur, April 21: an inquiry has been launched into
the alleged “buying” of voters’ photo-ID cards by political
parties in various Assembly segments in Kannur district and
orders issued to arrest anyone involved in the crime. ‘‘Both
sellers and buyers of photo ID cards will be booked for abetment
and prosecuted,’’ District Collector K.R. Jyotilal said in Kannur
on Friday. Reacting to the report that certain political parties
were now involved in buying voter ID cards to either nullify
negative votes or even use them for casting bogus votes, Jyotilal
said such charges had not been directly reported to the district
administration so far. ‘‘We have already started probing the
matter and poll observers are on the job of ascertaining the
truth,’’ he said, adding that if any political party was found
involved in the racket, it too would be booked for abetment
and stringent action will be initiated against it. |
Though CPI(M)
leaders dismiss this as a figment of the Congress’ imagination,
many people with no known political leanings swear that too many
tribals have warmed up to the deal and parted with their cards.
They say buying up ID cards helps in two ways. Apart from nullifying
unsure or negative votes, they may come handy in polling booths
in party strongholds where no one would dare to challenge the identity
of voters.
CMP leader
K.C. Nandanan said, ‘‘The CPM is attempting to buy all
possible ID cards in north Malabar to help LDF candidates. They
are busy doing it in many segments in Kannur and Kasargod districts.’’
CPM leaders and workers, however, try to laugh it off. ‘‘This
is a cock-and-bull story’’, asserted a veteran CPM activist
at Kelakam. He says the UDF leaders were merely trotting up excuses,
fearing defeat.
There is no
denying that Kerala is worriedly looking at Kannur and Kasargod
where the CPM had never been averse to employing its muscle power
to win polls. Not surprisingly, 360 booths are labelled capable
of giving a bad time to policemen in Kannur district alone. Of these,
105 have been declared ‘‘hyper sensitive’’,
51 ‘‘sensitive’’ and another 204 have been labelled
‘‘troublesome’’.
Police are
apprehensive that the CPM would intimidate voters or block them
before they reach polling booths this time too. The BJP, Congress
and IUML may also resort to similar tactics in their strongholds,’’a
senior police official said.
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