Thiruvananthapuram: Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala on Wednesday alleged a political conspiracy by the LDF in the suspected personal data breach of government employees. He claimed that Seeram Sambhasiva Rao, the Chief Minister’s Officer on Special Duty (OSD), had sent a letter to the Chief Mission Director of the Information Kerala Mission, asking department heads to share the personal details of government employees.

The Congress leader also shared the letter at the news conference as evidence. His allegation comes a day after the Kerala High Court pulled up the state government for accessing employees' personal details and sending election campaign-related messages.

In a letter dated December 31, 2025, the OSD stated that the details were required for the recently established Centralised Notification Hub for government services functioning under the Information and Public Relations Department. According to the Congress leader, the details accessed from K-Smart were compiled and shared in an Excel sheet.

“Many people have received messages from the Chief Minister. Personal details shared with the government are being misused for election campaigns. This is a breach of data privacy. No government holds the right to access personal details and send messages,” Chennithala alleged.

In the letter, the OSD reportedly asked department heads to furnish the details of all employees — including name, age, gender, taluk, local body, ward etc. — to the Special Secretary of the PRD before February 12, 2026.

"As part of the initiative of the Government of Kerala to design a digital communication system titled ‘Centralized Notification Hub for Government Services, the Information and Public Relations Department (I&PRD) is in the process of creating a comprehensive data lake by collecting essential service-related information, target groups and other relevant details from all departments. The information is required to facilitate the delivery of realtime notifications at various stages of the aforesaid scheme through multiple communication channels including SMS, Email, WhatsApp and voice/IVR based on the lifecycle of applications," reads the letter.

Chennithala claimed that the OSD would not have taken such a step without the Chief Minister’s knowledge. He also condemned the "cheap politics by accessing people's confidential data".

"Details of government staff as well as pensioners were misused to woo votes in the Assembly elections. This is a serious case of data breach. In 2023, the Central government passed a data protection law. But violating this law, the CM accessed the details of everyone who pays GST and sent messages to them. This is a big political conspiracy. Misusing personal data for the advantage of the LDF government is a serious crime,” he added.

The former minister also urged the High Court to register a suo motu case against the CM and his staff in connection with the alleged offence. He further accused the CM’s office of illegally accessing data from the SPARK software.

It is alleged that data of over 77 lakh employees was illegally accessed for the election campaign.