Kerala’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on Monday said that the presence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stamp on the Election Commission document was “purely a clerical error” which was “immediately identified and corrected”.
The clarification came after political parties like the Communist Party of India (Maoist) claimed that the BJP’s stamp on the EC document raised concerns about whether a single “power centre” influences both the BJP and the ECI.
The BJP stamp is found in the Election Commission of India’s guidelines document regarding publication of criminal antecedents of candidates. In a statement, the Kerala Chief Executive’s Office said the state unit of the BJP had recently approached it seeking clarification on the 2019 guidelines. Along with the request, the party had submitted a copy of the original 2019 directive, it added.
“The party seal was present on that particular copy they submitted. Due to oversight, the office failed to note the party symbol on the document submitted and inadvertently redistributed it to other political parties as part of the required clarification,” the office said.
She said the 2019 guidelines had been reviewed and these revisions had been communicated to other parties. He added that the Office of the Chief Executive acknowledged the error and the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer issued a formal letter withdrawing the erroneous document.
She added: “The Election Commission maintains a strict and secure system to ensure that the electoral process remains free of any external interference or influence.”
