Kerala
S Rajesh
Nov 20, 2023, 11:41 AM | Updated 11:41 AM IST
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Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday (19 November) slammed the Congress over allegations of 1.25 lakh fake voter cards being made through an app and used in elections to posts in the party's youth wing.
According to a report by Mathrubhumi, Vijayan said "Congress calls itself a democratic party and all but it's just for namesake. There is no democracy. They have no elected system in general, it's nominated committees that function for them. They conducted elections for the youth congress president post.
"Just imagine, it's an internal party election which ideally should be healthy. In such elections, they are choosing such a route.So imagine to what extent they can go against political rivals. This is what should be seen."
An eight-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by DCP Nithinraj P has been formed to probe the case, which was registerd under Sections 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (fraudulent use of a forged document) and Section 66 C of the IT Act, reported Times of India.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president K Surendran had written to the DGP on Friday (17 November) asking for a thorough investigation.
In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), he also stated that the top Congress leadership, i.e, Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, KC Venugopal and VD Satheesan were aware of the issue.
Calling it a serious offence, Surendran said that these voter cards could be used to purchase SIM cards or vote in the general elections. He also attached a screen recording of the process of making a voter card through the app.
The State Election Commission has sought a report from the DGP and an explanation from the Youth Congress.
Newly elected Youth Congress president, Rahul Mamkootathil, however, said that the elections were transparent. "It's good that BJP President K Surendran has come up with these allegations in the media. His allegations are pointless. He himself was involved in election malpractice," he said in a statement to ANI.
S Rajesh is Staff Writer at Swarajya. He tweets @rajesh_srn.