Election Commission Removes Home Secretaries: What Led To EC Action In Six States Ahead Of LS Polls

After the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission on Monday took major action and removed the Home Secretaries of six states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. Also, the secretaries of the General Administrative Department in Mizoram and Himachal Pradesh were asked to step down.

The decision came a month before the commencement of the Lok Sabha elections.

This action comes in the wake of the Commission's resolve and commitment to upholding fairness in the political system and guaranteeing the integrity of the voting process, as CEC Rajiv Kumar has repeatedly stated, most recently at the press conference announcing the schedule for the 2024 general elections.

The Chief Secretary was also ordered to transfer all the similarly placed Municipal Commissioners and Additional / Deputy Municipal Commissioners of other Corporations in Maharashtra.

The Election Commission also directed all the State governments to transfer officers connected with election-related work, who have completed three years or are in their home districts.

The Election Commission took this action on Monday after reviewing the election preparations with Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu. It was found that in many states, the Home Secretary and the Secretary of the General Administration Department are also associated with the Chief Minister's Secretariat. In such situation, it can benefit any party in the elections.

The post of Home Secretary and Secretary of the General Administration Department is anyway considered very important in the state.

Notably, the Election Commission had given orders to all the states and union territories to remove all such officers who had been stuck at one place for three years, even before the announcement of the dates of Lok Sabha polls. The commission also directed that the transfer must take place, and the order should not just be taken as a mere formality. It also said that they should not be posted in other districts falling in one Lok Sabha constituency.