Thrissur: After a dramatic late night recount of votes, K S Anirudhan, the Students Federation of India (SFI) candidate, was declared the winner of the college chairperson elections at Sree Kerala Varma College in Thrissur. He defeated Kerala Students Union’s (KSU) Sreekuttan Sivadasan by a margin of 11 votes.
Though the counting of votes began in the afternoon, the official election result was declared only after midnight as major drama unfurled in the evening on the college campus.
After the first counting, it was widely circulated among college students and social media that Sreekuttan, a visually-impaired final year political science student, emerged victorious by a single ballot, securing 896 votes.
News spread widely that KSU won the chairman post after a long gap of 41 years at the Kerala Varma College, traditionally an SFI bastion. While some leaders of the Congress party visited the campus to congratulate Sreekuttan, others took to social media to wish him.
However, the situation on the campus changed when SFI activists demanded a recount. Though KSU workers cooperated with the demand initially, they walked out later alleging discrepencies. "Valid ballots in favour of Sreekuttan were turned down by the election returning officer as invalid votes," KSU activists said.
“Over a dozen of votes that were declared invalid during the first round of counting were taken for recounting and many of those – favouring SFI – were considered valid. We realised that the recounting was just a farce by the returning officer, who is Left-wing college teachers' association leader, and his associates to help SFI win the post. The returning officer was directed by the college principal and the police to stop recounting. However, he decided to continue the procedure after getting calls from the Cochin Devaswom President. We finally had no option, but to boycott the recounting and walk away at 11.30 pm,” KSU Thrissur district president Gokul Guruvayur told Onmanorama.
By late evening, the campus was filled with Thrissur City Police and supporters of both SFI and KSU. The recounting was over by midnight and by 12.30 am the returning officer completed the formalities. SFI’s Anirudh won the chairperson post by 11 votes after securing 900 votes and Sreekuttan secured 889 votes.
KSU’s college unit president Akshay Vellarakkad said that they have decided to challenge the election result legally. “It is nothing but SFI hooliganism that tilted the election result in their favour. We will challenge the result in the court,” said Akshay adding that students have already accepted Sreekuttan as the winner.
Meanwhile, SFI activists said that the allegations made by the KSU are politically motivated and that there was no discrepancy during the recounting. “The KSU agents lack clarity about the counting procedures. After the first counting, both the candidates were tied with 895 votes. While we demanded recounting, KSU activists started celebrations. Even during the first counting, our booth agents had raised objection regarding many votes cast in favour of KSU and that’s the reason why we demanded the recounting. However, following protests by the KSU members, the recounting procedures were delayed. The newly elected office-bearers will take oath on Thursday after our victory march,” SFI Thrissur district secretary Jishnu Sathyan told Onmanorama.
Satheesan supports Sreekuttan
Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan took to social media to express his solidarity with Sreekuttan and KSU. "In Kerala Varma, Sreekuttan's win was a victory of democracy. It was a decision made by the students of the college. SFI did not accept victory and subverted democracy by conducting a recount at midnight. Some politically biased teachers also joined the conspiracy.
The SFI votes were validated for the same reason KSU votes were invalidated. There were two power outages during the recount. SFI criminals butchered democracy during this time.
Kerala Varma's Returning Officer and another teacher affliliated to DFYI have been trying to block KSU from the day elections were announced. A teacher's role is a respectable. It shouldn't be used to do CPM's biddings.
The battle waged by Srikuttan and KSU will be recorded as an unparalleled chapter in Kerala Varma's history. Sreekuttan, who is visually impaired, has bright light in his eyes and heart. The darkness is in the minds of those who overturned his victory.
Heartfelt greetings to KSU fighters. Keep fighting. Kerala is with us." Satheesan said in a Facebook post.
