A 12-member Election Commission of India (ECI) team, including senior official Maneesh Garg, visited Manipur last week to review poll preparations and assess the security situation ahead of the assembly elections scheduled in the violence-hit state early next year, people aware of the matter said on Thursday.
Manipur is scheduled to go to polls early next year, alongside Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Goa and Uttarakhand. The name of another official, director general (IT) Seema Khanna, was also on the list shared with the Manipur government, but she cancelled her visit at the last minute, the officials added. “Their visit kicked off the poll process. There was a presentation by state police nodal officer, followed by a meeting of all district election officers, and superintendents of police. During this period, it also came to the fore that the cabinet secretariat had forwarded the letters written by the two election commissioners to the office of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. The district police chiefs in their presentation did talk about how the more security is required.
“While training of nodal officers and using machines etc is a regular exercise, the situation in Manipur is different due to the massive security requirement. Their letter was accompanied by a copy of Garg’s order allocating work to himself and other ECI officials, including Khanna, after he was given additional charge of administrative division on July 28. The ECI delegation was in Manipur from October 21 to 23.
Senior deputy election commissioner (DEC) Garg was part of the team that flew to the northeastern state from Delhi to hold closed-door meetings, interact with nodal officers and review security arrangements, according to officials. The security aspect of holding the election peacefully when there are clashes was also discussed,” one officer aware of the matter said. The officer quoted earlier in the story said all district superintendents of police made presentations to ECI officials on the prevailing hotspots in their respective areas and the resources required to conduct the elections. The existing forces too will have to be deployed according to a safe pattern for fair elections,” the officer added.
Garg had come under the spotlight after it emerged that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had written to the Cabinet Secretary earlier this year regarding his alleged misconduct.
