Why ECI’s 'clerical error' explanation on BJP Kerala Circular is facing scrutiny?

As the Election Commission's circular with a seal of the BJP Kerala Unit sparked a major controversy, an official clarification came explaining it was a “clerical error”. The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) submitted an old 2019 ECI guideline to the Chief Electoral Officer’s office to ask for clarification on the publication of criminal antecedents of candidates. The Election Commission suggested that the same document was mistakenly forwarded to other parties for the same clarification. The explanation raised more questions than it settled. Several posts reporting the story were deleted from Social media, under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act. Notices sent to some journalists by the Kerala Police said that the content reporting the story “undermines communal harmony.”

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Why official explanation raise more questions than it answers?

Opposition parties like the Trinamool Congress, Indian National Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist) alleged that earlier there were just allegations of collusion between Bharatiya Janata Party and the Election Commission, but now the seal proves that the Election Commission and BJP are working together. CPI(M) Kerala shared the image widely, asking the BJP to at least have the courtesy to have a “separate desk”.

According to the official explanation, ECI forwarded the same ECI guidelines which the BJP submitted while seeking clarification on the same matter. It is baffling why the ECI would forward the same document which was sent by one political party seeking an explanation on any matter to other polictical party. If ECI was using the document as the master copy, does this imply that ECI takes BJP's confidence before issuing guidelines? Now it further raises the question of what else the ECI is seeking advice on from the ruling party, and if the apex poll body has forsaken its neutrality, as the opposition is claiming. Following the incident, as the story was reported, those reports were taken down, citing issues of communal harmony. Further, as ECI was suggesting that the incident was a “clerical error”, the BJP IT cell head was calling it “fake news”.