Thiruvananthapuram:Congress turned its votes over to BJP in Assembly elections of 2016, said then UDF candidate, V Surendran Pillai. The deal was struck 2 days prior to elections; I agreed to contest at insistence of senior leaders; It was owing to vote trade that UDF trailed 3rd place in the polls, said Surendran.
BJP leaders visited residences of some Election Committee office bearers at night just two days before the polls. Raising alarm would mean impacting the polls adversely, so I remained quiet, said Surendran. The probe commission appointed by UDF has confirmed the vote sale occurence. BJP’s first seat in Kerala Assembly came on the back of such deal, said Surendran.
In the first UDF meeting held after elections, MP Veerendra Kumar demanded probe into Nemom deal. VM Sudheeran backed that proposition. A Commission was set up with KPCC treasurer Johnson Abraham as the convener and the probe report named two Block presidents and 2 DCC office bearers in the incident.
Three of the four were men who were visited by BJP leaders on the night in question. The report was not discussed by UDF. At the meeting, Sudheeran remained evasive while Veerandra Kumar said, this is just what happened at Palakkad and that he wished never to be contesting polls for UDF again.
The “weak candidate” argument was propagated to conceal the vote sale at Nemom; I have been an MLA and Minister from Thiruvananthapuram constituency in 2006, said Surendran Pillai, adding that, there is likelihood vote deals between Congress and BJP this time too.
