CPI MP flags “grave breach” as BJP seal appears on official EC document

Communist Party of India (CPI) Rajya Sabha MP P. Sandosh Kumar has written to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, flagging what helium termed a “serious breach of organization neutrality and procedural integrity” aft an Election Commission of India (ECI) connection dated 19 March 2019 was recovered to carnivore the seal of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). 

The Kerala Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has reportedly acknowledged circulating the document, attributing the beingness of the party’s seal to a “clerical mistake”, an mentation the MP described arsenic untenable and profoundly troubling.

He argued that the incidental goes beyond regular administrative lapses and strikes astatine the credibility and law impartiality of the ECI, particularly astatine a clip erstwhile nationalist assurance successful antiauthoritarian processes requires utmost protection.

Mr. Kumar besides flagged different lapse—the Kerala CEO’s circulation of outdated FAQs connected disclosure of transgression antecedents of candidates contempt the ECI issuing updated guidelines successful January 2022 and March 2024 pursuing a Supreme Court judgment.

Calling the usage of outdated worldly either deliberate oregon disturbingly negligent, Mr. Kumar questioned whether governmental parties successful Kerala were misled oregon disadvantaged by the withholding of updated ineligible requirements.