Gyanesh Kumar offered me BJP candidature from Pathanamthitta, says Kerala ex-CS Jiji Thomson

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, who is in the thick of a political storm over his autocratic ways at the Election Commission, especially related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), had offered BJP candidature in general elections to former Kerala Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson.

Gyanesh Kumar, a Kerala-cadre IAS officer, who is accused of strong bias towards BJP, was very vocal about growing popularity of Narendra Modi in Kerala. Jiji Thomson told Onmanorama that it was during a flight to Delhi that Kumar asked him about the possibility of contesting as a BJP candidate in Kerala.

"I was serving as the Kerala Chief Secretary then. We were together on a flight. He was waxing eloquent about Prime Minister Modi and openly asked me if I was interested in contesting as a BJP candidate from Pathanamthitta in the 2019 general elections. He was very persuasive, I declined it promptly," said Thomson, who retired as the Kerala Chief Secretary in 2016.

The conversation happened during Jiji Thomson's tenure as the Chief Secretary of Kerala between 2015 and 2016.
The Opposition parties have launched protests across the country demanding the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar after The Indian Express expose revealed that other two Election Commissioners had repeatedly raised complaints on record against the decisions of Kumar. The CEC has constantly faced allegations of taking decisions on SIR favouring BJP. In a press conference, Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi had said both the Prime Minister and Home Minister had ignored his opinion to appoint Gyanesh Kumar as the CEC.

Jiji Thomson recalled another instance quite earlier in his official career when he was approached by a few people to contest elections. "Although I had declined the offer at that time also, Gyanesh came to know about it and tried to persuade me to enter politics," he recounted. Jiji Thomson has talked about Gyanesh openly vouching for BJP at a time when the CEC faces stinging questions on his impartiality as the head of a constitutional body.

Gyanesh Kumar took charge as the 26th CEC in February 2025. Having completed his BTech in Civil Engineering from llT Kanpur, he became the 1988 batch Kerala-cadre IAS officer. He had worked in Kerala as Sub-Collector of Adoor; MD of Kerala State Development Corporation for SC/ST; Secretary of Corporation of Cochin; MD of Kerala State Cooperative Bank; District Collector of Ernakulam; Secretary of Goshree lslands Development Authority; MD of Trivandrum Airport Development Society and Resident Commissioner of Kerala House in New Delhi.

He had also functioned as secretary to the Government of Kerala in Finance Resources, Public Works Department and Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs. He earned a deputation at the Centre following serious graft allegations in the World Bank-funded road construction project in Kerala and he was removed as the PWD secretary.