Row erupts after Kerala poll officer takes charge as secretary to chief minister

Opposition parties in Kerala accused the Congress of double standards after Kerala’s former chief electoral officer assumed charge as the secretary to Chief Minister VD Satheesan on Sunday, PTI reported.

Rathan U Kelkar, a 2003-batch Kerala cadre Indian Administrative Services officer, was transferred a day earlier from the Election Department to the chief minister’s office

As Kerala’s chief electoral officer, Kelkar had supervised the special intensive revision of electoral rolls, as well as the recent Assembly elections.

On Sunday, Communist Party of India (Marxist) state secretary MV Govindan pointed out that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had strongly criticised the new Bharatiya Janata Party government in West Bengal for appointing Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal as the state’s chief secretary after the Assembly elections.

“But when a similar move happens in Kerala, [Congress leader] KC Venugopal says it is the responsibility of those in power,” Govindan was quoted as saying by PTI. “This is a clear double standard.”

Keralam | Dr Rathan U. Kelkar, Chief Electoral Officer, Kerala & Secretary, Election Department, is transferred and posted as Secretary to the Chief Minister. pic.twitter.com/eZxnsBuhhS— ANI (@ANI) May 23, 2026

After Agarwal’s appointment as chief secretary in West Bengal, Gandhi had said on social media that in the “Bharatiya Janata Party-Election Commission’s ‘chor bazaar’ [thieves’ market], the bigger the theft, the...

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