Thiruvananthapuram: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday criticised the reported appointment of state Chief Electoral Officer Rathan U. Kelkar as secretary to Kerala Chief Minister V. D. Satheesan, alleging a fundamental contradiction in the Congress party's position regarding comparable administrative appointments in BJP-governed states.

Kelkar, a 2003-batch Indian Administrative Service officer, recently supervised the administrative operations for the Kerala Assembly elections in his capacity as the state's top election official.

Allegations of Political Double Standards

Responding to media coverage of the bureaucratic transfer, senior BJP leader K. Surendran accused the Congress leadership of maintaining double standards when dealing with appointments that involve former election regulators.

"In West Bengal, when the BJP did the same, it was described as a reward for vote theft. But in Kerala, when V D Satheesan does this, it becomes the beauty of democracy. Rahul and company are the biggest hypocrites," Surendran said in a social media statement.

The friction follows previous public statements by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who had criticised a BJP administration in West Bengal after former state Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal was elevated to the position of chief secretary following a transition of power in that state. At the time, Gandhi alleged institutional collusion between the BJP and the Election Commission of India, remarking that "the bigger the theft, the bigger the reward."

Government Defends Bureaucratic Prerogative

In response to the opposition's criticism, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala defended the decision, asserting that the state executive holds full constitutional authority to assign qualified civil servants to vital administrative roles.

"The appointment of Rathan Kelkar as the chief minister's secretary is the prerogative of the government. He is a competent officer, and the government has the authority to recall and appoint him. There is nothing unusual in it," Chennithala told reporters.

With inputs from PTI