india

Updated: May 01, 2019 23:47 IST

Chief minister Kamal Nath asked party candidates in Lok Sabha elections and party’s district chiefs to report names, designations, and departments of such officers and employees who do not maintain impartiality and careless during poll duty.

Nath has written the letter in the capacity of state Congress president. But it raised hackles in the BJP that sees this as an attempt on the part of the CM to “browbeat the government officers and employees while facing imminent defeat in the polls after seeing the trend in the first phase of polling in Madhya Pradesh.”

“Chief minister Kamal Nath’s letter during polling is unprecedented in country’s electoral history. It’s nothing but a direct threat to the government officers and employees engaged in poll duty in a bid to exert pressure on them,” said state BJP vice-president Vijesh Lunawat, adding the CM’s act was direct interference in the functioning of ECI as “government employees work under the ECI, not the state or central government, during elections”.

State Congress spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi defended the letter, saying “Every political party keeps a watch on officers and employees who are not doing their jobs with impartiality. An officer or employee doesn’t belong to any party.”