Former Minister and senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leader G. Sudhakaran on Thursday retracted his previous day’s statement that postal ballots were tampered with in favour of the CPI(M) candidate in the Alappuzha constituency in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections.

Speaking at a public meeting on Thursday evening, Mr. Sudhakaran said that no such incident of postal ballot tampering had occurred.

“The other day, I spoke with a bit of imagination. I have never engaged in or facilitated bogus voting. Postal ballots were not tampered with. I was only giving a warning to union members who did not vote. I have conveyed this to the election officials who came to record my statement,” he added.

On Wednesday while inaugurating a gathering of former NGO Union leaders in Alappuzha, Mr. Sudhakaran had said that postal ballots were tampered with in favour of the CPI(M) candidate in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections and even if the Election Commission was to initiate a case over the matter, it would not be a problem.”

In 1989 polls, Vakkom Purushothaman of the Congress party defeated Mr. Devadas by a margin of over 25,000 votes.

“In 1989, when Devadas contested as the CPI(M) candidate, postal ballots belonging to members of service organisations were collected and brought to the district committee office. I was the election committee secretary at the time. Around 15% of the voters had cast their ballots for the opposing candidate. We verified those ballots and altered them,” he said.

Mr. Sudhakaran said there was no obligation for all NGO Union members to vote for the Left Democratic Front.

“The NGO Union is a non-political organisation. People affiliated with any party can be a part of it. However, during elections, one should openly declare whom they are voting for. Do not think that if you seal the postal ballot and hand it over, no one will know your decision,” he added.

On Thursday, Chief Electoral Officer of Kerala Rathan U. Kelkar ordered an investigation into Mr. Sudhakaran’s revelation. As directed by District Collector Alex Varghese, who is also the District Election Officer, Ambalappuzha tahsildar S. Anvar recorded his statement.

In the evening, the District Collector directed the Alappuzha South police to look into Mr. Sudhakaran’s revelation regarding the alleged tampering of postal votes. The police, meanwhile, said a decision on whether to register a case would be taken based on the opinion of the Deputy Director General of Prosecution, Alappuzha.

“Since the incident in question occurred several years ago, we have sought legal opinion and further action will be taken based on it,” said a police official.

CPI (M) district secretary R. Nazar, however, denied the allegation of postal ballot tampering. Mr. Nazar said that he did not know the circumstances under which Mr. Sudhakaran made the statement.