Former Kerala Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson has alleged that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, while serving as a Kerala-cadre IAS officer, asked him in 2016 whether he would contest the 2019 Lok Sabha election as a BJP candidate from Pathanamthitta.
Thomson said the conversation took place during a flight to Delhi when he was serving as Kerala's chief secretary and Kumar was posted as Resident Commissioner of the Kerala government in the national capital. Kumar was a 1988-batch Kerala-cadre IAS officer at the time.
According to Thomson, Kumar spoke enthusiastically about Prime Minister Narendra Modi before asking him whether he was interested in contesting the Pathanamthitta seat on a BJP ticket. Thomson said he declined the offer immediately.
"I was serving as the Kerala Chief Secretary then. 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," Thomson was quoted as saying by Onmanorama.
Thomson, who retired as Kerala chief secretary in 2016, also recalled an earlier episode in which people had approached him about entering electoral politics. He said that after Kumar learnt about the approach, the IAS officer again tried to persuade him to enter politics.
Thomson said he declined that offer as well. Kumar has not publicly responded to the allegations.
Allegation emerges amid SIR controversy
The allegation comes at a time when the Election Commission of India and Kumar are facing intense political scrutiny over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and reports of differences within the three-member poll panel.
The controversy escalated after The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally raised objections at least 14 times over a 10-month period to decisions and orders relating to the SIR process. Their objections reportedly concerned issues including changes to Form 6, the addition and deletion of voters and what they described as increasing centralisation of control over electoral-roll databases.
The report said Sandhu and Joshi had questioned whether decisions were being taken or communications issued without the required approval of the full Commission. They also raised concerns about access to the electoral-roll database and changes involving the Commission's IT systems.
The Election Commission, however, said on Saturday that decisions concerning the SIR had been approved unanimously by all three Commissioners. It also said the changes made to Form 6 for voter enrolment had been upheld by the Supreme Court.
The Commission further said that letters written by Sandhu and Joshi to Cabinet Secretary TV Somanathan related to an officer on deputation and did not concern policy or the IT division.
The Indian Express had reported that the two Commissioners separately wrote to the Cabinet Secretary following a work-allocation order within the Commission. The newspaper said Sandhu and Joshi had objected at least 14 times over the preceding 10 months to decisions connected with the SIR that they said had been taken without their knowledge or recommendation.
The latest Election Commission statement followed a meeting attended by Kumar, Sandhu and Joshi, with the poll panel maintaining that SIR-related decisions had been unanimous.
Pathanamthitta contest and political reactions
The Pathanamthitta seat, which Thomson says Kumar had suggested he contest, was won by Congress's Anto Antony in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. CPI(M) candidate Veena George finished second, while BJP's K Surendran was third.
Official Kerala election data shows Antony secured 380,927 votes, or 37.11%, followed by George with 336,684 votes, or 32.8%. Surendran received 297,396 votes, accounting for 28.97% of the vote.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi reacted to Thomson's allegation by accusing Kumar of having been involved in recruiting for the BJP while he was still a serving IAS officer.
"Gyanesh Kumar, then a serving IAS officer, was used to recruit for the BJP," Gandhi wrote on social media.
The allegation has also drawn reactions from opposition leaders. CPI(M) general secretary MA Baby criticised Kumar following Thomson's disclosure and questioned why someone who allegedly sought to persuade an officer to enter electoral politics should subsequently head the Election Commission. His comments were based on Thomson's account and did not establish the allegation independently.
Opposition parties have been demanding Kumar's resignation and have organised protests in several parts of the country over the wider SIR controversy. Congress is also set to hold protests at district headquarters in Telangana as part of its nationwide campaign against Kumar's functioning.
The BJP and its allies have defended the Election Commission's handling of the SIR controversy. BJP president Nitin Nabin said the Commission's clarification that decisions had been unanimous showed that Congress allegations were unfounded and accused the opposition of misleading the public.
Union minister Chirag Paswan, whose Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) is an ally of the BJP, had said on Friday that public confidence in elections was at stake and urged the Commission to address the concerns. Following the Commission's latest clarification, he said the poll body had now explained its position on the key issues.
The INDIA bloc parties are expected to meet in Delhi on September 30 to discuss their response to the controversy. Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said she had messaged Rahul Gandhi proposing a meeting of opposition parties.
"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, on the issue.
Kumar became India's 26th Chief Election Commissioner on February 19, 2025. According to the Election Commission's official profile, he is a 1988-batch Kerala-cadre IAS officer who holds a BTech in Civil Engineering from IIT Kanpur. His previous assignments included posts in the Kerala government and several senior positions at the Centre, including Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Secretary in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Secretary in the Ministry of Cooperation.
The Election Commission's official records also confirm that Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi currently serve alongside Kumar as Election Commissioners.