After Rahul Gandhi’s claims, Congress mulls legal action over BJP victory in Kerala's Thrissur

Thrissur- The Congress party in Kerala is considering initiating legal proceedings over the BJP’s victory in the Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency in the 2024 general elections following the revelations made by Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi regarding large-scale electoral fraud. The Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Legislative Assembly, V.D. Satheesan, told the media on Friday that Gandhi has called for a thorough investigation into alleged election malpractices. “Numerous complaints have emerged in Thrissur regarding the Sangh Parivar’s illegal addition of votes. The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) will examine the possibility of initiating legal proceedings in this regard,” Satheesan said.

In Thrissur, which was a sitting Congress seat, BJP candidate and actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi secured a historic win with a margin of 74,686 votes. Veteran Congress MP from Badagara, K. Muraleedharan, contested from Thrissur but finished third, while former State Minister and senior CPI leader V.S. Sunil Kumar took the second spot. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Congress candidate T.N. Prathapan had won Thrissur by a margin of 93,633 votes, defeating CPI’s Rajaji Mathew Thomas. At that time, Suresh Gopi finished third with 2,93,822 votes.

Rahul Gandhi has alleged that in the Mahadevapura Assembly seat under the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency -- where the BJP won by 32,000 votes -- over one lakh fraudulent entries were added to the voters’ list. These irregularities reportedly include multiple voters registered under the same name, over 60 voters listed at the address of a single-room house, English alphabets replacing the father’s name, house numbers recorded as “0” and voters aged 70 or 80 years appearing in the list of first-time voters. Gandhi further claimed that such large-scale manipulation was also carried out during the recent Parliamentary elections and in state elections in Maharashtra and Haryana. He asserted that the BJP/NDA remains in power by subverting free and fair elections and therefore has no legitimate right to continue in office.(IANS)