Keralam: CPI(M) lambasts Congress after CEO Rathan Kelkar appointed as Secretary to CM

The CPI(M) State Secretariat, in a statement, raised questions over the credibility of the Assembly elections, calling the transfer a "reward for services rendered."

The CPI(M) State Secretariat said, "Appointing the Chief Electoral Officer as the Chief Minister's Secretary has raised serious questions over the credibility of the Assembly elections. Kerala has never witnessed such an appointment immediately after an election, in what appears to be a reward for services rendered. This strengthens the LDF's allegations that the Election Commission had taken several biased and suspicious decisions in favour of the UDF during the election process."

The party slammed Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who had strongly criticised the BJP government in West Bengal for appointing the State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal as the Chief Secretary.

CPI(M) alleged an "understanding" between Congress, BJP and the ECI.

"The controversy over a BJP seal appearing instead of the Election Commission's seal in a letter sent to political parties was also mentioned. When similar appointments were made in West Bengal, Rahul Gandhi had tweeted that if the 'theft' in the deal between the BJP and the Election Commission was bigger, the reward would also be bigger. The AICC had then termed those appointments a shameless nexus and collusion. Rahul Gandhi and the Congress leadership to clarify whether what happened in Kerala was also a shameless understanding between the Congress, BJP and the Election Commission," the statement added.

The opposition party also criticised the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll, stating that the Left had earlier raised objections against the Commission for "deleting genuine voters while retaining ineligible names," and accused the Commission of "abruptly stopping adding names to the voters' list a week before the previously announced deadline without informing anyone."

The CPI(M) also referred to the BJP seal controversy in the Election Commission letter as another instance of interference. It alleged that there was confusion in allocating election symbols to LDF candidates, including in Palakkad constituency, and complaints that some LDF symbols were not clearly printed on voting machines.

Apart from that, the party also alleged that lakhs of government employees assigned election duty were denied voting rights and said that the ECI allegedly failed to release accurate polling percentages.

Earlier, Keralam BJP also criticised the move to appoint Rathan Kelkar as the Secretary to CM Satheesan.

Keralam BJP posted on Facebook, "Rathan Kelkar, the former Chief Electoral Officer of Kerala, has been appointed as the Secretary to Chief Minister VD Satheesan. According to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's logic, Ratan Kelkar's appointment is to be seen as a reward for the huge victory achieved by the Congress in Kerala. The Congress should stop this kind of politics that is misleading the people." (ANI)