Thiruvananthapuram, March 23 (IANS) The Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Kerala, on Monday said that it has come to our notice that a letter from the Election Commission, bearing the seal of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is being circulated across various Malayalam news channels.

Kerala goes to the polls on April 9 to elect 140 new legislators.

Based on the latest available figures for the 2026 Assembly elections, Kerala has an electorate of around 2.72 crore.

The Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) hereby clarifies that this was purely a clerical error, which was identified and rectified immediately.

The BJP Kerala Unit had recently approached the CEO’s office seeking clarification on the 2019 guidelines regarding the publication of criminal antecedents of candidates.

Along with their request, the party submitted a photocopy of the original 2019 directive.

The party's seal was present on that specific copy provided by them.

Due to an oversight, the office failed to notice the party symbol on the submitted document and inadvertently redistributed it to other political parties as part of the requested clarification.

The guidelines in question have undergone revisions since 2019, which have already been communicated to all political entities.

The Office of the Chief Electoral Officer acknowledged the lapse as soon as it was detected.

Consequently, on March 21, the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer issued a formal letter withdrawing the erroneous document.

The withdrawal notice was dispatched to all political parties, District Election Officers, and Returning Officers.

The public and media are requested to refrain from spreading misleading messages based on this clerical error.

The Election Commission maintains a rigorous and foolproof system to ensure that the electoral process remains free from any external interference or influence.

The three political fronts battling out in Kerala include the ruling CPI-M-led Left, the Congress-led UDF and the BJP-led NDA.

--IANS

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