ECI selects 25 MP IAS as poll observers on its own; its 2-day training begins in Delhi

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has named over 25 IAS officers from the Madhya Pradesh cadre to act as central poll observers for the forthcoming assembly elections in the five states—West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry—taking a toll on the functioning of the government. This is the first time that the ECI did not ask the state govt to send its list of IAS officers to be deputed as election observers and simply asked it to follow its dictate.

The ECI is holding a two-day special training programme for the poll observers in Delhi on Thursday in which a large number of IAS officers selected as poll observers are participating.

The IAS officers from MP participating in this training programme, include Public Relations Commissioner Deepak Saxena, Transport Secretary Manish Singh, Agriculture Secretary Nishant Warwade, Finance Secretary Lokesh Jatav, Director of Finance Rajiv Ranjan Meena, Commissioner of Treasury Bhaskar Lakshakar, Additional Secretary of Finance Rohit Singh, Secretary of Planning and Statistics Shriman Shukla, Secretary of Fisheries Welfare Swatantra Kumar Singh, Secretary of Board of Secondary Education Buddhesh Vaidya, and some other officers who may be appointed election observers.

According to sources in government, the state govt had written to the EC to keep the officers holding important positions free from the duty of poll observers, but the EC overruled and, instead of considering the state government’s request, asked the state to send the officers named by it to Delhi for training.

It is a subtle move on the part of the ECI to get rid of the state government’s interference in the way of sending the names of officers to it for poll duties.

The ECI this time did not ask the state govt to send the list of officers to be appointed as poll observers and went ahead with naming them on its own. The commission seems to have learnt from its experience after the Bengal govt recently objected to its selecting IAS officers as poll observers on its own. Thus, the interference by the state in the poll process has ended.