Opposition CPI(M) Saturday slammed the appointment of Kerala Chief Electoral Officer Dr Rathan U Kelkar as secretary to Chief Minister V D Satheesan, saying the posting raises questions over the credibility of the election process.
Last week, when West Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal was appointed the chief secretary of the state, Opposition Leader in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had said in an X post, “In the BJP-EC’s ‘chor bazaar’, the bigger the theft, the bigger the reward.”
Referring to Rahul’s “BJP-EC chor bazaar” remark, the CPI(M) and BJP in Kerala asked the Congress leader to clarify whether he holds the same position on the appointment of Kelkar as secretary to the Congress chief minister in Kerala.
Senior BJP leader K Surendran, in an X post, said: “When BJP appoints former West Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal as Chief Secretary, Rahul Gandhi screams: ‘The bigger the theft, the bigger the reward.’ But exactly 10 days later, the Congress government in Keralam led by V D Satheesan appointed Keralam CEO Rathan Kelkar as Secretary. So, Rahul ji, what happened in Keralam, is it still ‘reward for theft’ or suddenly the beauty of democracy?”
Former minister and CPI(M) central committee member P Rajeev told the media that when the ECI appoints an officer as the chief electoral officer of a state, the officer is relieved of all other responsibilities. “Normally there should be at least a cooling period to ensure the credibility of the election process. When the CEO suddenly becomes the secretary to the chief minister, it is a matter of grave concern. Congress national leadership and Rahul Gandhi, who criticised the appointment of the CEO as the chief secretary in West Bengal, should clarify whether they have a similar view on the Kerala posting,” he said.
The CPI(M) state secretariat said in a statement that Kerala had never before seen such a posting made so soon after an election, and it appeared to be a reward for favours rendered. It said this substantiated the LDF’s allegation that the Election Commission had adopted partisan and suspicious actions in favour of the UDF during the elections.
The CPI(M) said lakhs of votes had been removed in Kerala under the guise of SIR. The Left had earlier opposed the EC’s action of deleting genuine voters from the list while retaining ineligible names on the rolls. The office of the chief electoral officer in Kerala had already courted controversy by sending an ECI letter bearing the Kerala BJP office seal. At a time when the BJP-led Union government is trying to undermine the neutrality of the Election Commission, a Congress-led state government is also making similar interventions, it said.
Senior Congress leader and Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said the appointment of Kelkar as secretary to the chief minister was within the powers of the state government. “He is a good officer and the government has the authority to recall him. There is nothing unusual in it,” he said.
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