Cong led Opposition stages walkout from assembly

The Congress-ledOpposition staged a walkout from the Kerala assembly on Mondayafter Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan denied permission to move anadjournment motion to discuss the alleged threatening of apoll officer by an MLA during the recent local body polls.

Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) MLA N A Nellikkunnumoved the motion, seeking discussion on the alleged threat tothe officer byUduma MLA K Kunhiraman on December 14.

The opposition walked out after the Speaker refusedpermission, saying the incident occurred a month ago and wasunder the consideration of the State Election Commission.

Nellikkunnu and other oppositionmembers returned laterand raised the matter as the first submission in the Assembly.

On January 9, the SEC sought a report from the Kasaragoddistrict collector on a polling officer's complaint that theCPI(M) legislator from the district had threatened him duringthe local body polls held in December.

K M Sreekumar, Professor, Agricultural Entomology,Kerala Agricultural University at nearby Peelicode, was onelection duty as the presiding officer at the polling station.

He had complained that Uduma MLA K Kunhiraman hadthreatened him for verifying credentials of voters.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, in his reply, said theofficer had not yet filed a police complaint against the MLA.

''However, based on newspaper reports, we have asked theKasaragod district Crime Branch DySP to look into the matterand submit a report.

It's based on the news reports alone,'' he said.

Vijayan also said it was not the duty of the presidingofficer to verify the voter ID cards.

''In this matter, the presiding officer was examining theID cards of the voters, which was actually the duty of thepolling officers appointed to the booth.

The MLA, who reached there to vote, reported this matterto the district collector, who later asked the presidingofficer to perform his duties,'' Vijayan said.

He said in Kasaragod alone, 113 cases were registered inconnection with the local body polls, 38 of which were filedby workers of Left parties and 37 by the Congress-led UnitedDemocratic Front (UDF).

Vijayan also said action would be taken against theculprits in all these cases without any political bias.

Sreekumar, a leftist and also president of the Peelicodeunit of the Teacher's Organisation of KAU, had accused the MLAof silencing him when he raised a dispute over bogus votingduring the third phase of the local body polls on December 14.

''Let the first polling officer verify and you keep mum.Ifyou don't listen to what we say,your legs will be chopped off,the complaint, quoting the MLA threatening remarks, had said.

Sreekumar had in a Facebook post alleged there were onlyCPI-M agents at the booth, facilitating unquestioned bogusvoting.

Senior Election Commission officials had said the pollingofficer was supposed to report incidents of bogus voting orthreats, to police and Returning Officer concerned on the sameday or the next day itself.

The voting, which was held in three phases,was completedon December 14. the results were declared on December 16 andthe Left parties secured a comfortable win. PTI RRT APRADMINISTRATOR APRADMINISTRATOR

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)