During election time, it is normal for the office of the Chief Electoral Officer Kerala, to email political parties and election officials a copy of the 'FAQs on Criminal Antecedents of a Candidate'. But this time, there was something unusual about the mail that was received. It had the seal of BJP Kerala.

The CPM was the first to expose this incongruity. The party gleefully saw this as yet another piece of evidence of how the BJP has usurped the powers of the Election Commission of India.

"A BJP seal on an Election Commission letter! ," a post on CPM Kerala's X handle exclaimed. "Have all pretences been dropped by the BJP? It is no secret that the same power centre seems to control both the Election Commission of India and the BJP," the CPM post said, and hammered the knife deeper: "Even then, at least maintain the courtesy of two separate desks."

The post reminded readers of the ignored allegation of rigged EVMs. "Just like the old allegation - that no matter which button you press, the lotus appears - here comes another 'coincidence'," the X post said.

The CPM post said, "this was a first". "We have often heard claims that, no matter which button is pressed on a voting machine, the lotus lights up. But this is the first time it appears as if the BJP and the Election Commission are using the same seal," it said.

The mail with the ECI attachment having the BJP Kerala seal was sent on March 21. First to district collectors, at 12.06 p.m., and then, barely half an hour later, to political parties and leaders.

Soon after the CPM taunt came the clarification of the CEO Kerala, Rathan U Kelkar. Kelkar called it a "clerical mistake" and claimed that the mistake was spotted on March 21 itself by the deputy CEO and communications were immediately issued to district election officers, returning officers and political parties withdrawing the mail.

The CEO's March 21 missive said that the letter has been withdrawn and "should be disregarded".

According to the CEO, this is how the mix-up happened. A representation of the Kerala unit of the BJP had visited the CEO Kerala's office in 2019, asking for clarifications on the FAQs issued by the ECI on the criminal antecedents of a candidate. Along with the application seeking clarity, the BJP team had also attached a copy of the FAQ. This copy had the BJP Kerala seal.

This time, when it was time to distribute the FAQs, some official in the CEO Kerala office carelessly fished out from the files the copy of the FAQs that the BJP Kerala unit had submitted in 2019 and had the party's seal, photographed it and emailed it to all concerned parties.

Fact is, the FAQs were revised after 2019, and the CEO Kerala said that the changed FAQs were earlier forwarded to the political parties. Kelkar said the election process was so foolproof that it had no scope for outside intervention.