Former Chief Secretary’s revelations against CEC extremely serious: K.C. Venugopal

All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary K.C. Venugopal, MP, has termed former Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson’s disclosure that the present Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar had in 2016 urged him, while he was still serving as an IAS officer in the Keralam cadre, to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as “extremely serious.”He said that this revelation by Mr. Thomson clearly exposes Mr. Kumar as the operative who had taken upon himself the task of installing Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in power.Mr. Venugopal alleged that the post of CEC was a reward that was handed over to Mr. Kumar for doing the BJP’s bidding when he was still in service. He pointed out that the BJP also did Mr. Kumar the favour of passing a Parliamentary legislation that explicitly mandates that no civil or criminal proceedings can be initiated against the CEC or other Election Commissioners for any action taken or words spoken while discharging their official duties.He demanded that the CEC be removed immediately, accusing Mr. Kumar of heading a racket which “seizes power by hollowing out democracy.”He also accused Mr. Kumar of reciprocating the BJP’s favours by undermining elections in the country.Mr. Venugopal said that dissent was already surfacing within the NDA against Mr. Kumar. He urged the Modi government to remove the CEC from his official post immediately and protect the integrity of the Election Commission. Published - September 27, 2026 12:02 am IST