No change in election team for LS polls

Raipur, December 11

The general elections slated to be held in April-May 2014 will be conducted by chief electoral officer Sunil Kujur and his team in Chhattisgarh. According to information, praising Kujur’s team for conducting two rounds of polls in State transparently and peacefully, chief election commissioner VS Sampath has sent a letter to chief secretary Sunil Kumar and directed to keep the election team intact for upcoming democratic jamboree.

Polling in naxal-infested Bastar was never an easy task, however with effective planning, Kujur’s team succeeded in holding elections in adverse conditions. As much as 1.50 lakh central and state security personnel were deployed in 18 constituencies of Bastar and Rajnandgaon for first round of polls to avert naxal violence. The result was whopping 75.53 percent turnout in tribal belt. Kujur’s poll management produced similar effect in second phase of polls in 72 constituencies too as the turnout sprang to 78.50 percent.

Sampath, in his letter, not only expressed his satisfaction over performance of CEO Kujur, additional CEO Nidhi Chhibar, joint CEO DD Singh and deputy CEO Alex Paul Menon along with other officials but also directed the CS to fill vacant posts of CEO’s office through deputation for smooth conduction of Lok Sabha polls.

The code of conduct for assembly polls in State came into effect on October 4. From day one tillDecember 8 results, the EC monitored each and every activity of election team secretly for over two months and reached to the conclusion that it worked impartially.

Interestingly, the election team drew flak from political parties, especially BJP and Congress, who called it biased for not taking instant action on their complaints against each other’s candidates. The CEO reportedly received over 300 complaints from different political parties in 2013.

However, the political parties later appreciated EC for holding uncontroversial polls with no reports of major violence, EVM thefts and hijacking of polling stations.

Kujur is holding the office of CEO since 2008. He successfully conducted polls for third assembly in State in 2008 and 15^th Lok Sabha in 2009. His subordinates say the team would perform equally effectively in upcoming general elections to be held in 11 constituencies of Chhattisgarh.