Among states where home secretaries removed, only UP objected to ECI's order: Report

Ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the ECI on Monday removed home secretaries of six states, West Bengal police chief, and the BMC commissioner.

According to a report, Uttar Pradesh was the only state to argue its case after the Election Commission of India (ECI), in a move ahead of April's Lok Sabha elections, removed home secretaries of six states and Rajiv Kumar, the police chief of West Bengal.

Sanjay Prasad (right) with Yogi Adityanath (Twitter/@sanjaychapps1)

The Election Commission, however, stood firm, and Uttar Pradesh eventually relented, the Indian Express report stated.

Sanjay Prasad, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1995 batch, is said to be among the most trusted officials of chief minister Yogi Adityanath. Prasad took over as Uttar Pradesh's Principal Secretary (Home) in September 2022.

UP argues its case

As per the report, UP Chief Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra, within hours of the Election Commission's Monday decision, wrote back to the poll panel, making a case against its order. In his submission, Mishra noted that Prasad had relinquished the additional charge of the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) days before the ECI, on March 16, declared schedule for the Lok Sabha polls.

As the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) came into effect immediately after the schedule was released, there was no conflict of interest on Kumar's part, the Chief Secretary wrote.

ECI responds

The ECI reiterated its decision, and asked Mishra, the UP Chief Secretary, to recommend three names from which the poll body will pick one as Prasad's interim successor, who will hold charge for the duration of the polls.

“While the Commission considered the UP government's stance, its order was reaffirmed,” a source was quoted as saying.

Who else was removed? Why the action?

The home secretaries of Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Uttarakhand were removed as well, with each of these states complying with the order on the same day. Iqbal Singh Chahal, the commissioner of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the Mumbai-based Asia's richest civic body, was shunted as well.

The transferred bureaucrats, ECI officials said, were holding dual charges including one in the office of the respective chief minister; this, in turn, would have potentially seemed to ‘compromise impartiality and neutrality’ required during the electoral process.

During MCC, a government cannot make policy-related decisions or transfer officials. Therefore, as the body that conducts elections, the power to transfer officials during such a period, lies with the ECI.