Nilambur Meeting bypoll: Congress leaders cry foul over ‘focused’ automobile checks as marketing campaign intensifies

Congress MP Shafi Parambil accuses election officers of concentrating on get together leaders. File
| Picture Credit score: PTI

With lower than 4 days for the Nilambur Meeting byelection, the marketing campaign is changing into murkier, with Congress MP Shafi Parambil and Palakkad legislator Rahul Mankootathil accusing election officers of concentrating on them by asking them to drag over their autos at Colony Plot close to Nilambur on Friday evening (June 13, 2025.)

The younger Congress leaders have in contrast the incident of their autos being checked to the midnight raids on the lodge rooms of Congress leaders through the Palakkad by-poll final November.

Nevertheless, Election Fee officers dismissed the allegations of the Congress leaders, stating that automobile checking is a routine process throughout polls. In actual fact, checks had been carried out on the autos of IUML MP Abdul Wahab and CPI(M) MPs Okay. Radhakrishnan and P.Okay. Biju by the Static Surveillance Workforce at varied entry factors to Nilambur. These checks have been video-recorded.

In a press launch, district Collector and district Election Officer V.R. Vinod clarified that as a part of the Mannequin Code of Conduct implementation, 10 static surveillance groups, 9 flying squads, three anti-defamation squads, two video surveillance groups and different techniques are working. These are necessary measures in accordance with the foundations and laws issued by the Election Fee of India, and he urged the folks to cooperate with the officers.

Earlier, the Congress leaders stated that they had been insulted by the officers, who had shone a torch into their autos, requested them to get out, and checked their suitcases.

Nevertheless, CPI(M) leaders, together with A. Vijayaraghavan and Minister for Public Works Division P.A. Mohamed Riyas, stated the Congress leaders had been dramatising the incident through the marketing campaign as an alternative of preventing the electoral battle politically. LDF convener T.P. Ramakrishnan stated it was unbecoming of elected representatives to disrespect the authority of the Election Fee and query it. “They need to cooperate with the procedures,” he stated.

In the meantime, Chief Minister Pinarayi will start his three-day marketing campaign within the constituency on Saturday morning (June 14, 2025). AICC normal secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who will go to varied locations in Wayanad on Saturday, will even marketing campaign in Nilambur, part of Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, on Sunday (June 15, 2025).

The Nilambur bypoll on 19 June has change into the cynosure of Kerala’s political state of affairs with the Congress-led United Democratic Entrance and the CPI(M)-led LDF marshalling all their sources. The CPI(M) has nominated M. Swaraj, Congress has fielded Aryadan Shoukath and the BJP Mohan George. Additionally within the fray is P.V. Anvar, who resigned his legislative membership, which necessitated the byelection within the section. He had gained as an Unbiased with the assist of the LDF within the 2021 Meeting polls. The counting of votes will happen on 23 June.