A political dispute has emerged between BJP leader Jiji Joseph and former Kerala Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson following Thomson’s claim that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had suggested that he contest the 2019 Lok Sabha election on a BJP ticket.
Thomson recently said that Kumar made the suggestion during a flight to Delhi in 2016, when both were serving in government. According to Thomson, Kumar suggested that he contest from the Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha constituency, become an MP and later serve as a Union minister. Thomson said he rejected the suggestion.
The claim has attracted political attention because it comes amid an ongoing controversy surrounding the Election Commission and reported differences among its members over electoral-roll decisions and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.
BJP leader Jiji Joseph has now challenged Thomson’s account. In a Facebook post, Joseph said that he was making public details about an earlier interaction involving Thomson because of the former bureaucrat’s recent remarks.
Joseph said that in 2017, when he was serving as the BJP’s Minority Morcha state president, a senior Sangh Parivar leader asked him to invite Thomson to a BJP Minority Morcha event in Kochi. Joseph said Thomson attended the programme and spoke positively about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union government’s initiatives.
Joseph also referred to Thomson’s subsequent appointment as an independent director of Cochin Shipyard, where he served from 2017 to 2020. Joseph suggested that Thomson may have been interested in obtaining a larger position. These are Joseph’s allegations, and Thomson had not publicly responded to them in the reports reviewed.
Thomson’s original allegation concerns a conversation he says took place in 2016, before he retired from the civil service. He said the suggestion to contest from Pathanamthitta came from Kumar, who was then a government officer and not a member of the Election Commission.
The controversy has also drawn reactions from Opposition leaders. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi referred to Thomson’s account while criticising Gyanesh Kumar in the context of the wider dispute surrounding the Election Commission. However, Thomson’s account by itself does not establish the broader political conclusions drawn by Opposition leaders.
The Election Commission has separately maintained that differences of opinion can occur within the three-member panel and has said that its decisions, including those relating to SIR, were approved through the Commission’s established decision-making process.
The exchange between Joseph and Thomson has added another layer to the ongoing political debate over the Election Commission. At present, Thomson’s account and Joseph’s counter-allegations remain competing versions of events, with no independent evidence publicly establishing either side’s claims.