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Bengal governor returns state election commissioner’s joining letter
West Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose returned Rajiva Sinha’s joining letter and raised questions over the continuation of the poll watchdog chief days before the July 8 panchayat polls
West Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose has returned state election commissioner Rajiva Sinha’s joining letter following disagreements over the deployment of central forces for the July 8 panchayat polls, raising questions over the continuation of the poll watchdog chief.
An official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the return is unprecedented. “I am not sure what may come next. Nothing of this sort has happened in the past wherein a governor has refused to accept the joining letter of a poll panel chief after appointing him,” said the official.
The official said the state government may seek a legal opinion to decide the future course of action. Officials were unsure whether Sinha will be removed. The process of the removal of a state chief election commissioner is similar to that of a high court judge (through a motion adopted in parliament).
Bose sent the joining letter to the state secretariat while refusing to accept it late on Wednesday night. Sinha earlier expressed his inability to meet the governor citing his busy schedule.
Sinha, a former chief secretary, was appointed the state election commissioner on June 7 after a nod from the governor’s office. The next day, Sinha announced the panchayat election schedule.
There was no immediate response from the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Bose returned the letter a day after he went ahead with the commemoration of West Bengal’s “foundation day” even as chief minister Mamata Banerjee called for cancelling the programmes to mark it as it would rekindle bitter memories of the state’s creation after partition, which left tens of thousands dead and millions uprooted.
The TMC was earlier at loggerheads with Bose’s predecessor, Jagdeep Dhankhar, who has since become the vice president. In December 2020, TMC wrote to then-President Ram Nath Kovind demanding Dhankhar’s removal.
On Wednesday, the Calcutta high court pulled up Sinha for failing to implement the orders over the deployment of central forces. The court directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to ask for 82,000 central forces amid pre-poll violence that has allegedly claimed eight lives. It junked pleas of the state government and SEC against an earlier order in the matter.
The court slammed Sinha, saying it fails to understand why the SEC is still not taking an independent decision on the matter. SEC officials refused to comment, saying the poll watchdog will abide by the orders.
The Supreme Court earlier on Tuesday said holding elections cannot be a licence to commit violence. It asked if the candidates are unable to file a nomination or if they are finished off while they are going to file it, then where is the free and fair election?
TMC leader Kunal Ghosh on Wednesday said the nomination process has been peaceful in most places. “In around 5-8 places, the opposition triggered violence. They want these pictures of violence to run on the media so that courts may be influenced and they will create a narrative and do politics over it...”
