Thiruvananthapuram, March 23 -- Kerala's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on Monday said that the presence of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seal on an Election Commission document was "purely a clerical error" which was "identified and rectified immediately".

The clarification came after political parties such as the CPI(M) alleged that the BJP seal on an EC document raised concerns about whether a single "power centre" was influencing both the BJP and ECI.

The BJP seal was found on a document of ECI's guidelines regarding publication of criminal antecedents of candidates. In a statement, the Kerala CEO's office said that the BJP's state unit had recently approached it seeking clarification on the 2019 guidelines. Along with the request, ...