Election Commission studies bogus voting by three in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram:The controversy over two women and a man casting bogus vote in Kannur district of Kerala has been referred to the Election Commission.

Since Saturday, after TV channels started airing the visuals of the bogus voting "caught on camera" in the Kasargod Lok Sabha constituency, the Congress took up the issue before Chief Electoral Officer Tikka Ram Meena.

Meena asked for a detailed report from the district collectors of Kannur and Kasargod where these incidents were reported.

Kerala voted on April 23 for all 20 Lok Sabha seats.

The district collectors have met officials attached to the polling booths where the incidents were reported and have sought their version.

The district collectors' reports were now with Meena.

The CPI-M's Kannur district Secretary M.V. Jayarajan late on Saturday explained that its workers had only done "open voting".

However, the Congress candidate from Kasargod Lok Sabha constituency, Rajmohan Unnithan, told the media on Monday that there was no such thing called "open voting".

"What's there in law is companion voting. But in these visuals, all these people were voting themselves. Under law, if a person is unable to cast his vote, he can have a companion in the polling booth," said Unnithan.