Bandhavgarh bypoll: EC transfers 3 officials after complaints

The Election Commission today transferred three officials amid complaints that they were campaigning in favour of the BJP candidate in the run up to the Bandhavgarh Assembly bypoll, scheduled on April 9.
One of the transferred officials is a brother of Shivnarayan Singh, BJP's candidate for the Bandhavgarh assembly bypoll.
"We had received complaints against four officials. Three of them were transferred from their current field posting and attached to the district administration's offices. The complaint against another officer is still being examined," Umaria District Collector and Returning Officer Abhishek Singh said.
Those transferred include a patwari (revenue official) Nar Narayan Singh (brother of BJP candidate Shivnarayan Singh), Karkeli Janpad's Chief Executive Officer R K Mandavi and Labour Department official Ghanshyam Gupta, he added.

"They were transferred from their current field posting and attached to different offices of the district administration," Singh said.
A complaint had also been lodged against South Eastern Coalfields Limited's General Manager O P Katare. Singh said the complaint against Katare was being examined.

Umaria district Congress chief Rajesh Sharma said his party had lodged the complaint with the EC against these officials "for campaigning in favour of BJP".
The Leader of Opposition in Madhya Pradesh Assembly, Ajay Singh took up the matter with the poll watchdog, after which action was taken against the officials, Sharma claimed.
"We have demanded the removal of these officers from the field as they were campaigning in favour of the BJP candidate," he said.

The bypoll in Bandhavgarh and Ater (Bhind district) assembly constituencies will be held on April 9.
In Ater, the top contenders are Congress' Hemant Katare and BJP's Arvind Singh Bhadoria, while in Bandhavgarh, the contest is mainly between BJP's Shivnarayan Singh and Congress candidate Savitri Singh.
The counting of votes will be held on April 13. In Ater, the by-election was necessitated following the death of Congress leader Satyadev Katare, while the Bandhavgarh (ST) seat in Umaria district fell vacant as MLA Gyan Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha in November last year.
Campaigning for the bypolls will end this evening.