Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Kerala, Rathan U. Kelkar, on Thursday ordered a police investigation into CPI-M leader and former Minister G Sudhakaran’s statement that service organizations supporting his party had tampered with the postal ballots of the Alappuzha Lok Sabha constituency in 1989.

The Chief Election Officer has directed the District Collector, Alappuzha, who is also the District Election Officer in Alappuzha, to register an FIR and take further steps. G Sudhakaran had recently said that office-bearers supporting his party had tampered with the postal ballots to benefit the LDF candidate K. Devadas, who was contesting from the Alappuzha Lok Sabha constituency in 1989.

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Chief Electoral Officer Kelkar on Thursday said that the Election Commission of India (ECI) had taken a serious view of the media reports regarding G Sudhakaran’s controversial statement regarding postal ballot tampering. The CEO said tampering with the postal ballots is a violation of sections 136 and 128 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 ,and the Conduct of Election Rules 1961

Following the Chief Electoral Officer’s order to file a case against former minister G Sudhakaran for allegedly tampering with postal votes, a team of officials led by Ambalappuzha Tehsildar K Anwar visited G Sudhakaran’s residence on Thursday after noon and recorded his detailed statement regarding the alleged tampering with the postal ballots . The Ambalappuzha tehsildar said that the recording of Sudhakaran’s statement has been completed and a detailed report will be submitted to the District Collector.

G Sudhakaran ,after giving his statement, told the media that he had stated the officials everything he had to say and added that he was not afraid of the consequences of his revelations.

G Sudhakaran stirred up a political controversy after he revealed that during the 1989 Lok Sabha elections, postal ballots were tampered with in favour of his party.

Addressing a gathering of former NGO Union leaders in Alappuzha recently, G Sudhakaran revealed that the postal ballots were unsealed to identify which members of the party-backed NGO union had voted for the opposition party candidate.

“NGO Union members must vote for the Left alone through postal voting. Few do it. When our party leader K.V. Devadas contested in Parliament from Alappuzha, we opened, scrutinized, and changed postal ballots in the district committee office. 15% votes had gone in favor of the rival candidate. Whether a case can be registered against me or not now is not important,” Sudhakaran said

Despite the alleged rigging in favour of the CPI-M candidate, Devadas was defeated by his opponent Congress candidate Vakkam Purushothaman by around 18000 votes in the 1989 general election.

Responding to the revelations , KPCC president Sunny Joseph alleged that the CPI-M has been practising vote rigging and ballot tampering for many years and that such illegal activities are part of the party’s election strategy.