Re-polling at 3 LS booths in Kasaragod constituency, one other on May 19

Kasaragod: The Kerala state election commission Thursday decided to conduct re-polling on May 19 in three booths in Kalliasseri in Kasaragod constituency and a booth in Taliparamba in Kannur.

The move comes after allegations of bogus voting surfaced in the April 23 Lok Sabha elections.

The polls would be held from 7 am to 6 pm on the day, the commission said in a release.

The election commission nullified the April 23 Lok Sabha polls held in the constituencies.

The decision was taken based on the reports of the returning officers, the chief electoral officer and general observers, it said.

The opposition Congress and BJP, who had raised allegations of bogus voting against the workers of ruling CPI(M), welcomed the election commission’s decision.

KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran and opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said the Congress party would extend support to the efforts of the EC to cleanse the polling exercise by checking bogus voting.

Three women activists of the ruling CPI(M), including a panchayat member, had earlier been booked on charges of bogus voting.

In an embarrassment to the ruling front, local television channels had aired the CCTV visuals in which the three women could be seen voting more than twice.

Later, the state chief electoral officer Teeka Ram Meena had confirmed that three Congress-led UDF workers had also cast bogus votes as alleged by the ruling CPI(M)-headed Left Democratic Front in Kasaragod constituency.

The LDF had released ‘digital evidence’ of the bogus voting by two men, suspected to be IUML workers, in a polling booth in Kasaragod.