kerala-woman-claims-nine-fake-votes-added-at-her-thrissur-flat

A flat owner in Kerala’s Thrissur district has lodged a complaint alleging that nine fake votes were registered using her address without her knowledge.

 

The alleged irregularities surfaced at flat No. 4C, Capital Village Apartments in Poonkunnam, where the owner, Prasanna, said she is the only person in the household eligible to vote in Thrissur.

 

Prasanna told reporters that her family consists of four adults and two children, with the other three adults registered to vote in their ancestral village of Poochinipadam. She said she discovered the nine additional names when someone visited for voter verification.

 

“We don’t know any of them. We have been living here for four years. It’s not right to add names to our address without our consent,” she said, adding that she had signed a complaint submitted to the district collector.

 

CPM workers alleged that similar voter list manipulations have taken place in other Poonkunnam flats, including Water Lily and Capital Village. They claimed that vacant flats were misused as fake addresses to transfer votes from other districts.

 

“The fact that the real flat owner doesn’t even know these people makes the issue serious,” they said.

 

The claims have reinforced earlier allegations by CPM leader and former Thrissur candidate VS Sunil Kumar, who accused the Election Commission of permitting large-scale irregularities in voter registration.

 

He alleged that in one polling booth alone, 280 applications were filed together and that names of people from other constituencies, as well as migrant workers, were added to the list.

 

According to him, the Election Commission made the process easier by allowing voter registration using a postal card as proof of address.

 

Thrissur was the only Lok Sabha seat in Kerala won by the BJP in the 2024 elections, with Suresh Gopi defeating Sunil Kumar of the LDF and K Muraleedharan of the UDF.

 

Opposition Leader VD Satheesan has also called for a thorough investigation into the complaints, accusing the BJP of adding votes “in the wrong way” and undermining free and fair elections.

 

He praised Rahul Gandhi for drawing attention to alleged poll manipulation and urged citizens to resist “fascism, autocracy, and communalism.”