Election Commission, Union government should explain why lakhs of eligible voters removed from electoral rolls in Kerala: LDF

The Left Democratic Front (LDF) has said that the Union government and the Election Commission of India (EC) owed voters an explanation about how lakhs of them were disenfranchised after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Kerala. 

LDF convener T.P. Ramakrishnan told a press conference that thousands of “ineligible persons,” including those from outside Kerala and of suspicious identity, had crept into the rolls. He said the LDF would take up the cause of voters struck off the electoral rolls at the State and national levels and was also mulling legal options. 

Mr. Ramakrishnan said the LDF was yet to discuss seat sharing. He said the split in the Indian National League (INL) posed some unique difficulties for the LDF, which the coalition would address soon. 

Visit to Sonia Gandhi’s residence

The LDF leadership meeting tried to turn the tables on the Congress in the Sabarimala gold theft scandal. Mr. Ramakrishnan said the Congress had no clear answer on how the two prime accused in the offence were allowed into the not-easily-accessible high-security residence of Sonia Gandhi in Delhi. “UDF convener Adoor Prakash and Anto Antony, MP, who accompanied the suspects are now blaming the Congress in Karnataka for the fiasco,” he said. 

Mr. Ramakrishnan said the LDF had no case that Ms. Gandhi was somehow complicit in the crime. “But, the LDF seeks a clear public explanation from the Congress in the interest of the Ayyappa devotees,” he said. Mr. Ramakrishnan said the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were on the same page when it came to besmirching the probe by the special investigation team (SIT) to whitewash the bigwigs accused in the case, chiefly Sabarimala Tantri Kandararu Rajeevaru.  

The LDF condemened the UDF’s attack on Health Minister Veena George’s official residence and termed the mode of political protest uncivic.