Kerala's chief electoral officer (CEO) has suspended an official after a document on frequently asked questions (FAQs) on the declaration of criminal antecedents of candidates was emailed to political parties with a BJP stamp on it.
Responding to an X post on the issue by the CPM, the Kerala CEO wrote: "The BJP Kerala Unit had recently approached the CEO’s office seeking clarification on the 2019 guidelines regarding the publication of criminal antecedents of candidates. Along with their request, the party submitted a photocopy of the original 2019 directive. The party's seal was present on that specific copy provided by them. Due to an oversight, the office failed to notice the party symbol on the submitted document and inadvertently redistributed it to other political parties as part of the requested clarification. The guidelines in question have undergone revisions since 2019, which have already been communicated to all political entities.
"The Office of the Chief Electoral Officer acknowledged the lapse as soon as it was detected. Consequently. On March 21, the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer issued a formal letter withdrawing the erroneous document. The withdrawal notice was dispatched to all political parties, District Election Officers, and Returning Officers."
The CEO said the assistant section officer dealing with the file had been placed under suspension pending inquiry.
The issue created ripples in Bengal, which is facing Assembly polls like Kerala. Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra posted on X: "So @ECISVEEP in the past had courage to issue official letters with @BJP4India seal. Requesting Gyanesh Kumar to come clean with what all of us already know & issue further letters the same way."