Kolkata, April 8 – Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar ordered the immediate removal of an Election Commission of India (ECI)-appointed poll observer for the upcoming two-phase Assembly elections in West Bengal later this month, as the observer in question lacked practical knowledge about the polling booth network in the area for which he was appointed by the Commission.
The lack of knowledge of Anurag Yadav, the general observer for the Cooch Behar (Dakshin) Assembly constituency in Cooch Behar district, was revealed during a virtual meeting chaired by the CEC and attended by the general observers.
Sources familiar with the development at the meeting said that CEC Kumar expressed his anger at the fact that the ECI-appointed general observer for the Cooch Behar (Dakshin) Assembly constituency did not have basic knowledge of the number of booths in the constituency.
CEC Kumar reportedly also raised questions about Yadav's sense of responsibility and immediately ordered his removal from the general observer duty.
CEC Kumar, sources said, also observed that despite being appointed as the general observer for Cooch Behar (Dakshin) for quite some time, Yadav did not do the necessary preparation to efficiently carry out his duty, and in such a situation, it was doubtful how effective he would be in that role.
This time, the ECI had appointed one general observer for each of the 294 Assembly constituencies in West Bengal.
West Bengal is the only poll-bound state where the Commission had decided to appoint one observer for each Assembly constituency.
West Bengal also has the maximum number of police observers at 84, followed by 40 in Tamil Nadu, 35 in Assam, 17 in Kerala, and four in Puducherry.
In the case of expenditure observers, Tamil Nadu has the maximum deployment at 151, followed by West Bengal at 100.