Gujarat Elections 2022: Poll Body Replaces IAS Officer As General Observer After He Flaunts Posting On Insta

Gujarat Elections 2022: Krishna Bajpai has replaced Abhishek Singh as the General Observer in Ahmedabad. The Election Commission's move came after Singh flaunted the posting on Instagram.

Sacked General Observer Abhishek Singh (L). His replacement Krishna Bajpai (R)

Abhishek Singh, who was an observer for the upcoming Gujarat Elections, has been relieved from his duties to be replaced by Krishan Bajpai, Joint Chief Electoral Officer Ajay Bhatt said on Thursday.

Gujarat | Abhishek Singh (Observer for Gujarat Elections) has been removed & has been replaced by Krishan Bajpai: Ajay Bhatt, Joint Chief Electoral Officer pic.twitter.com/An8pxemiBu

— ANI (@ANI) November 18, 2022

Abhishek Singh was the General Observer for two constituencies in Ahmedabad — Bapunagar and Asarwa. The Uttar Pradesh cadre officer was removed from election duty after he flaunted his appointment as the General Observer in an Instagram post on Thursday.

The Election Commission called the Instagram post a “publicity stunt”. “Abhishek Singh used Instagram for sharing his posting/joining as General Observer and had used his official position as a publicity stunt", the Election Commission's order, removing Singh from election duty, reportedly stated.

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The poll panel also shared with the CEO pictures uploaded by the officer on the social media platform, the sources said. Citing the EC communication, the sources said the poll panel took "a very serious view" of the matter and relieved Singh immediately of his duties as a general observer.

He has also been debarred from any election-related duty till further orders. The officer was directed to immediately leave Ahmedabad and report to his nodal officer in the parent cadre.

All government facilities provided to him to facilitate the discharge of his observer duties be withdrawn, the letter said, according to the sources.

His replacement Krishna Bajpai is a 2010 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from Uttar Pradesh. He took charge as the regional commissioner of Karnataka’s Kalaburagi revenue division in September this year. He is also the secretary of the Kalyana Karnataka Region Development Board (KKRDB).

In the Instagram post, Singh uploaded two photographs — one showing him in front of a beacon-mounted car with ‘Observer’ written in the front and another with other officials and an armed security guard.

The same day, Singh, who describes himself as a public servant and actor on Instagram uploaded photographs of him hugging producer Karan Johar on a story.

Elections to the 182-member Gujarat Assembly will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5, while votes will be counted on December 8. The results will be declared the same day.

(With inputs from ANI and PTI.)