Ex Kerala-CS Thomson says he rejected the suggestion, which he claims was made during a flight to Delhi while Kumar was serving as a senior government officer. The allegation has since drawn reactions from Rahul Gandhi and CPI(M) leader M.A. Baby.
BY PC Bureau
NEW DELHI, September 26: Former Kerala Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson has alleged that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, then a serving IAS officer, approached him in 2016 and suggested that he contest the 2019 Lok Sabha election on a BJP ticket from Pathanamthitta, with the possibility of becoming a Union minister if elected.
Thomson said he declined the suggestion. His allegation, made in interviews with Malayalam news outlets, was amplified on Saturday by Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, who used it to question Kumar’s impartiality as the head of the Election Commission.
According to Thomson, the conversation took place on a flight to Delhi in 2016, when he was still Kerala’s Chief Secretary. Thomson said the two had a good professional relationship and that Kumar asked him about his plans after retirement.
Thomson said he told Kumar that he had no major political ambitions and was considering work related to the future of children. Kumar, he alleged, then suggested that he contest the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Pathanamthitta as a BJP candidate, become an MP and eventually a Union minister.
Thomson described Kumar as “very persuasive” and said the then-officer spoke positively about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s growing popularity in Kerala. Thomson said he rejected the suggestion immediately.
He also claimed that Kumar had previously encouraged him to enter politics after learning that other people had approached him about contesting elections.
“I was surprised. It’s not an offer that should come from him,” Thomson said, referring to Kumar’s position as a serving government officer at the time. He also pointed to the restrictions governing political activity by serving civil servants.
The allegation concerns a private conversation from a decade ago and remains Thomson’s account. No independent evidence establishing that the conversation took place has been made public in the reports reviewed.
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First, Gyanesh Kumar – then a serving IAS officer – was used to recruit for the BJP.
Then Modi and Shah made him the umpire and put him in charge of match-fixing India’s elections. https://t.co/hvdhEfoVgg
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 26, 2026
Gandhi targets CEC
Rahul Gandhi on Saturday cited the Kerala Congress’s post about the allegation and stepped up his attack on the CEC.
“First, Gyanesh Kumar — then a serving IAS officer — was used to recruit for the BJP. Then Modi and Shah made him the umpire and put him in charge of match-fixing India’s elections,” Gandhi said in a social-media post.
The Congress’s Kerala unit also questioned who, if anyone, had authorised such an approach and why a serving civil servant would allegedly have been involved in political recruitment.
CPI(M) general secretary M.A. Baby separately referred to the allegation while questioning Kumar’s suitability to head the Election Commission. Baby said the episode raised questions about Kumar’s political independence. Those are political assessments by the opposition and not established findings.
The allegation has emerged amid a broader confrontation between the Opposition and the Election Commission over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
An Indian Express investigation has reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi recorded objections on at least 14 occasions over 10 months concerning various SIR-related decisions. The reported objections included issues concerning Form 6, access to electoral-roll systems and administrative decisions.
The Election Commission has maintained that final decisions on SIR were taken unanimously.
Kumar’s career
Kumar is a 1988-batch Kerala-cadre IAS officer. According to the Election Commission’s official profile, he served in several positions in the Kerala government before moving to the Centre, where he worked as Joint Secretary and Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs and later served as Secretary in the Ministry of Cooperation.
He superannuated from the IAS on January 31, 2024, and was appointed an Election Commissioner on March 15, 2024. He became the 26th Chief Election Commissioner on February 19, 2025.
Thomson, a 1980-batch Kerala-cadre officer, served as Chief Secretary of Kerala in 2015-16.
The timing described by Thomson places the alleged conversation in 2016, when Kumar was still serving in government. Thomson retired from the IAS later that year.
The allegation has nevertheless added a new dimension to the Opposition’s ongoing challenge to Kumar’s neutrality. Congress leaders have already demanded his resignation over their broader allegations concerning the functioning of the Election Commission and the SIR exercise.
The Election Commission, meanwhile, has rejected suggestions of a formal institutional breakdown and has maintained that its SIR decisions were taken collectively and unanimously.
