Pradeep Pattanayak

The Odisha unit of the Bharaitya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday leveled serious allegations against the State Election Commission (SEC), stating that the Constitutional authority has been reduced to ‘a toothless body’.

Addressing a presser at the party’s State headquarters in Bhubaneswar, State BJP general secretary Lekhashree Samantasinghar accused the SEC of being a tool in the hands of the BJD-led government. 

The discontent among the saffron party’s leaders came following the missing of the names of many of its’ candidates from the final voter lists prepared by the SEC. 

“It was told that the district level final voter lists would be published on December 18. That did not happen. Now after much delay, the lists have been published. What surprised us is that some of our prominent candidates’ names have gone missing from those lists,” alleged Samantasinghar. 

Training her guns on the SEC, she said, “The voter lists prepared by the Election Commission of India (ECI) are not matching with those published by the SEC. The names featuring in the ECI’s lists are not found in the SEC’s lists.  From this, one can easily understand the wrongful intention of the State government as well as the SEC.”

She also pointed out the fact that some Block Development Officers (BDOs) have been posted in their home towns. “The posting of officers in their home towns is violation of model code of conduct. We had taken up the issue with the SEC but nothing has been done as yet. This suggests that the SEC has reduced itself to a mere toothless body” she said. 

Pointing out that Vijay Amruta Kulange has been the district Collector of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s home district Ganjam for five years and D Brundha, district Collector of Kandhamal district for seven years, she demanded their immediate transfer.
 

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