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Alappuzha South police on Friday, May 16, booked G Sudhakaran, senior leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), for his statement on postal ballot tampering. The police action comes upon instruction from the Election Commission regarding Sudhakaran’s mention of tampering with ballots to favour the CPI(M) candidate in Alapuzha during the 1989 Lok Sabha elections.
Sudhakaran made the controversial statement while presiding over a gathering of former NGO Union leaders in Alappuzha on Thursday, May 15.
“We were in charge of the elections [1989] and brought the postal ballots to our committee office. We discovered that not all employees affiliated with our party had voted for our candidate. So, we tampered with the ballots. Our people should vote for our candidate, but that doesn’t always happen,” Sudhakaran said in his speech.
In the 1989 polls, the CPI(M) fielded KV Devadas in Alappuzha, against Congress’s Vakkom Purushothaman. Purushothaman defeated Devadas by a margin of 25123 votes.
Sudhakaran mentioned that he was the Election Committee Secretary back then, and that the postal ballots were opened and checked. “Around 15% of the votes of members of CPM service organisations were cast in favour of the opponent. The postal ballots were opened, checked, and corrected. Even if a case comes up against me, I don’t mind,” he said.
After the video of his speech went viral, Sudhakaran changed his statement, saying that he had spoken with “a touch of imagination”. Meanwhile, MV Govindan, the CPI(M) Kerala state secretary, completely denied Sudhakaran's claim.
Sudhakaran has reportedly been booked under different sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), and 471 (using as genuine a forged document), along with Sections 135 (removal of ballot papers from polling station), 135 A (booth capturing), 136 (electoral offence), and 128 (maintenance of secrecy of voting) of the Representation of the People Act.
With IANS inputs