THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major embarrassment for the Election Commission, a letter it sent to the political parties bore the seal of the state BJP unit. The poll panel withdrew the letter soon after detecting the goof-up.
Officials said the document was circulated due to a clerical error and stressed that the mistake had already been identified and corrected. The withdrawal was issued on March 21 from the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer in Thiruvananthapuram.
A fresh communication was sent to all political parties, District Electoral Officers and Returning Officers directing them to disregard the earlier letter. The office also shared updated guidelines on the disclosure and publicity of criminal antecedents of candidates, noted the EC.
The controversy began on Monday after the letter began circulating widely in the public domain. The communication was a recirculated version of a 2019 directive linked to a Supreme Court judgment on transparency in candidates’ criminal records.
It triggered concern because the document carried the seal of the BJP Kerala unit instead of that of the Election Commission.The CPM flagged the issue and prepared to file a formal complaint. M V Nikesh Kumar, who heads the party’s social media campaign, shared the document online and questioned how an official communication carried a party seal.
The party also raised concerns over the integrity of official correspondence. Responding to the controversy, Chief Electoral Officer Rathan U Khelkar said the error occurred during the handling of a clarification request.
He explained that the BJP Kerala unit had approached the CEO’s office seeking clarity on the 2019 guidelines and had submitted a photocopy of the original letter bearing its party seal. This copy was inadvertently redistributed to other parties without noticing the seal. He said the lapse was detected soon and immediate corrective steps were taken.
“The letter was withdrawn on March 21 itself and all stakeholders were informed. The error has since been rectified,” he said. It urged the public and media not to draw misleading conclusions from the error.