India's CEC Gyanesh Kumar offered me BJP ticket, ex-Kerala chief secretary claims

Dubai: A former Kerala chief secretary has alleged that Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar asked him to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha election as a BJP candidate, adding a new dimension to the controversy surrounding the poll chief as the Election Commission faces scrutiny over its handling of electoral rolls.

Jiji Thomson said the approach was made in 2016, when both men were serving IAS officers, during a flight to Delhi. Kumar has not publicly responded to the allegation.

The claim quickly triggered fresh political demands for Kumar to step down. Cockroach Janta Party leader Abhijeet Dipke renewed his call for the CEC’s resignation on Saturday, citing Thomson’s account.

Sharing the report on his Instagram handle, Dipke wrote: “Gyanu must go.”

In a post on X, Dipke also took a dig at Kumar, saying: “Ye karwayenge free and fair elections” (He will ensure free and fair elections).

Thomson told Onmanorama: “We were together on a flight. He was waxing eloquent about Prime Minister Modi and openly asked me if I was interested in contesting as a BJP candidate from Pathanamthitta in the 2019 general elections. He was very persuasive, I declined it promptly.”

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also seized on the allegation, accusing Kumar of having been involved in recruiting for the BJP and of “match-fixing elections”.

“First, Gyanesh Kumar — then a serving IAS officer — was used to recruit for the BJP. Then Modi and Shah made him the umpire and put him in charge of match-fixing India’s elections,” Gandhi wrote on X.

Thomson also recalled an earlier episode in his career when other people had approached him about entering politics. Although he declined that offer as well, Thomson claimed Kumar subsequently learned about it and again tried to persuade him to enter politics, he told Onmanorama.

Kumar, a 1988-batch Kerala-cadre IAS officer, was serving as Kerala’s Resident Commissioner in New Delhi around the period described by Thomson. He became India’s 26th Chief Election Commissioner in February 2025.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Congress candidate Anto Antony retained Pathanamthitta, while BJP candidate K Surendran finished third.

The allegation comes as Kumar faces demands from opposition parties to step down following reports about objections raised within the Election Commission over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections on record at least 14 times over a 10-month period to decisions and orders involving the SIR process, including voter deletions, registration procedures and management of electoral databases.

The Election Commission has rejected suggestions that the objections amounted to a split over its final decisions.

Following a meeting of Kumar, Sandhu and Joshi on Saturday, the Commission said the SIR order and schedules had been approved unanimously by all three members.

It also said correspondence sent by Sandhu and Joshi to Cabinet Secretary TV Somanathan concerned an officer working on deputation and was not related to Commission policy or its IT division, The Week reported.

The poll body has previously said that commissioners may express individual views and observations during deliberations, but that final Commission decisions, including those concerning SIR, were unanimous, according to The Times of India.

The Commission has also said that changes to Form 6, used for voter enrolment, had been upheld by the Supreme Court.

The clarification followed mounting opposition criticism over reports of differences within the three-member Commission.

Opposition parties, however, have continued to press the issue and are expected to discuss their next steps when INDIA bloc leaders meet in New Delhi on September 30.

Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee has said she sent a message to Rahul Gandhi proposing that opposition parties meet.

“I sent a message to Rahul Gandhi, and told him that we must sit together. A meeting of the INDIA bloc will most likely be held in Delhi’s Constitution Club on September 30,” she said.

CPI(M) general secretary MA Baby has also written to opposition leaders, including Banerjee, over the issue.

The political pressure therefore predates Thomson’s latest allegation. His account of the alleged 2016 conversation has now introduced a separate issue concerning Kumar’s time as a serving IAS officer, years before he became Chief Election Commissioner.

The allegation remains Thomson’s account of a private conversation, and Kumar has not publicly responded to it.