Former Kerala chief secretary says Gyanesh Kumar asked him to contest 2019 polls on BJP ticket

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former Kerala chief secretary Jiji Thomson has alleged that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar asked him in 2016 to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha election as a BJP candidate.

Thomson said the conversation took place during a flight to Delhi while he was serving as Kerala's chief secretary. Kumar was also a serving IAS officer at the time.

“I was serving as the Kerala chief secretary then. We were together on a flight,” Thomson told OnManorama. He said Kumar asked whether he would contest from Pathanamthitta on a BJP ticket.

According to Thomson, Kumar spoke about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's growing popularity in Kerala and tried to persuade him to enter politics. Thomson said he rejected the suggestion immediately.

Thomson told the media that Kumar asked him to contest for the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. “He said once I win I could become a central minister,” The New Indian Express quoted him as saying.

Thomson said the suggestion surprised him because it came from Kumar. The former chief secretary said he was not interested in contesting elections.

He also recalled an earlier instance when others had approached him about entering electoral politics. Thomson told OnManorama that Kumar later learnt of that approach and again tried to persuade him to join politics.

Thomson is a retired 1980-batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre. He served as Kerala's chief secretary in 2015 and 2016 during the Oommen Chandy-led Congress government.

Kumar is a retired 1988-batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre. He assumed office as India's 26th chief election commissioner in February 2025.

The allegation surfaced while Kumar and the Election Commission face scrutiny over reported disagreements within the three-member poll panel.

An Indian Express investigation published this week reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections at least 14 times over 10 months. The objections concerned electoral-roll decisions, changes to Form 6 and control of the Commission's voter-list software.

The Election Commission said differing views and observations were part of its decision-making process. It also maintained that its final decisions had been taken unanimously by the full Commission.

On Saturday, the Commission ordered an expert review of ECINet and formalised procedures for circulating meeting agendas and recording minutes. The meeting was the first involving all three commissioners after the newspaper's investigation.

The former Kerala chief electoral officer Teekaram Meena also demanded Kumar's resignation following Thomson's allegation.

Kumar, the Election Commission and the BJP had not issued a public response to Thomson's allegation at the time of writing.