Kannur: Kannur Collector Arun K Vijayan, who is the designated District Election Officer, has suspended two polling officials, one micro observer, one civil police officer and a videographer after a former CPM branch secretary allegedly cast the home vote of an elderly woman in Kalliasseri.
Home voting, an initiative of the Election Commission to help elderly citizens above 85 years and persons with disabilities, started on Thursday, April 18 in Kerala.
The collector took punitive action against the polling officials after the CCTV footage of the proceeding was made public by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The party also filed a formal complaint with Kasaragod District Collector Thursday evening.
Around 4.15 pm on Thursday, the polling officials arrived at the house of Devi (92) to record her vote at Parakkadavu in Kalliasseri grama panchayat (Booth No. 164 in Kalliasseri Assembly segment).
Kalliasseri and Payyannur are two assembly segments in the Kannur district which are part of the Kasaragod Lok Sabha Constituency.
Around 4.16 pm, the revolving CCTV camera at Devi's house captured CPM's former Parakkadavu Branch Secretary Ganeshan sitting 20 steps away on the driveway parapet.
When the police officer placed the protective cover on the voting table, the polling official asked him to place it on the floor, stripping the confidentiality of Devi's vote.
After the officials made Devi sign a few papers, they handed her the ballot paper and asked her to put a tick on the symbol of her choice.
That's when Ganesh, sitting within earshot, started fidgeting and got up. "You remember your symbol, right?" an official can be heard saying.
At 4.20 pm, one polling official was teaching the elderly woman how to make a mark on the ballot paper. The photographer asked Devi's daughter standing at the threshold of her kitchen to move away so that she did not come into his frame. But outside the frame, CPM agent Ganeshan was having a clear view of the elderly woman's ballot paper.
After a few seconds when the officials asked if she had cast her vote, Devi said no. That was when Ganeshan moved in and pointed the elderly woman to his party's symbol on the ballot paper.
When she was still struggling, he covered the entire ballot paper and turned the woman's attention to his party symbol. The polling officials stood by smiling.
At 4.21 pm, the polling officials pointed the police officer to the home CCTV camera recording the proceedings. The police officer gestured back, 'It's ok'.
BJP state secretary K Shreekanth said the CPM stole the elderly woman's vote. "Devi's family traditionally supports the BJP. The CPM sent its agent to steal her vote," he said.
BJP's Gangadharan Kaleeswaram, responsible for the booth, said the polling officials cheated the family and the BJP. "They (officials) scheduled their visit to Devi's house on Friday. But they came on Thursday. We were not informed. But the CPM agent Ganeshan was there," he said.
He said the CPM was caught stealing the vote because Devi's house had a CCTV camera. "Kalliasseri assembly segment has 1,489 home voters. We demand that repolling should be conducted for all home voting held on the first day, that is Thursday," he said.
The BJP also demanded the presence of central forces in Payyannur and Kalliasseri – two strongholds of the CPM – during the election on April 26.
Kasaragod Collector Inbasekar said Devi's vote has been declared invalid and there will be no repolling at her house. He said the polling officials have been replaced with a new team.
CPM's M V Balakrishnan, Congress's Rajmohan Unnithan and BJP's M L Ashwini are the key candidates in Kasaragod Lok Sabha constituency.
