A man wearing a helmet was caught at a polling booth in Ambalapuzha constituency in Kerala’s Alappuzha district, when he tried to cast a fake vote. The person who introduced himself as Suresh Kumar was not ready to remove his helmet even though officers asked him to.
"The real Sunil Kumar had cast his vote earlier. After that, this person wearing a helmet came and said he was Suresh Kumar. I asked him to remove the helmet but he did not do that. I knew that he was not a real voter," a poll booth agent told the media.
The booth agent said that they knew the original voter as they had visited his house. However, after booth agents realised that it was an attempt to cast a double vote, the person left the spot.
Prior to the elections, Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala had alleged that the voters' rolls had many duplications and the Election Commission had failed to remove them.
On April 1, he released a list of 4.34 lakh voters whose names were present more than once in a particular booth or constituency, Chennithala had given a list for each constituency and released this through a website named Operation Twins.
"The EC had told the court that there are only 38,586 DSEs (demographically similar entries). That's very surprising. Bogus voters were added to the voters' list across the state," Chennithala had told the media.
Following this, booth agents appointed at every booth by political parties, especially booth agents of the Congress, have been keeping a tab of double voters in the state.
The Kerala High Court on Wednesday directed the Election Commission to take steps to ensure that voters whose names were present more than once on the list should vote only once.
Double vote or fake vote complaints have emerged from many other booths in Kerala.
In Taliparamba of Kannur district, BJP and UDF have alleged that mass bogus votes have been cast in different booths. UDF has asked for a re-polling in the area. A BJP supporter has come up saying somebody voted in his name.
UDF candidate of Taliparamba has alleged that LDF has sabotaged the elections there.