EC reposes faith on official Trinamool Congress accused of being biased towards BJP

TMC on Thursday demanded the removal of Jain, who is in charge of the West Bengal Assembly elections

After the Trinamool Congress accused a senior official of the Election Commission of bias for the Bharatiya Janata Party, the poll-panel dismissed the allegation and reposed faith in him.

The Election Commission (EC) on Friday dismissed the demand of the Trinamool Congress to strip the senior official of the responsibility to conduct the forthcoming assembly polls in West Bengal.

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Derek O' Brien, the leader of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the Rajya Sabha, wrote to the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal, demanding that Sudeep Jain, the Deputy Election Commissioner, be relieved of the responsibility of conducting the polls in the State as he had a track record of being biased against the regional party led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The EC issued a statement, making it clear that it had “full faith in the integrity and fairness” of Jain.

Read | Bengal polls: TMC demands removal of Deputy Election Commissioner Sudeep Jain for being 'biased'

“The Commission would like to categorically state that all our Deputy Election Commissioners and other officials posted in the ECI (Election Commission of India) headquarters and/or working in the field are discharging their duties strictly as per Constitution of India and the various extant rules regarding the conduct of elections,’ the poll-panel stated. “There could be an odd exception here or there in which case EC takes corrective action immediately.”

Jain, who joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1994, is one of the three Deputy Election Commissioners of the EC. He is overseeing the conduct of the polls in West Bengal.

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He was also in charge of West Bengal during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The TMC, which is in power in West Bengal, alleged that Jain had taken several steps during the last parliamentary poll going against not only the norms of the EC, but also against the principle of federalism enshrined in the Constitution of India.

“We don't have any faith in him,” said Sougtata Roy, a member of the Lok Sabha and a spokesperson of the TMC. “We (TMC) apprehend that this time too he (Jain) will take steps which will either directly or indirectly help the BJP,” Roy said in Kolkata on Thursday. “We want him to be removed as in-charge of elections in West Bengal for the sake of free and fair poll.”

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The EC on Friday stated that the decisions the TMC had accused the Deputy Election Commissioner of taking during the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 had in fact been taken by the commission itself “in the interest of holding free fair and peaceful elections”. The decisions had been implemented by the district election machinery, under supervision of the Deputy Election Commissioner, Chief Electoral Officer, nodal police officer and other concerned senior officials, the poll-panel noted

“Unfortunately,” the EC stated, “it is not for the first time that a concerted campaign is mounted against senior officers of the Commission on the eve of / during the process of elections”.