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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Wednesday, April 9, accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of acting as a ‘branch of the BJP’ after the latter replaced state chief secretary V Irai Anbu with senior bureaucrat M Sai Kumar. The ECI had also replaced the Director General of Police (DGP) (armed police, vigilance and anti-corruption) S Davidson Devasirvatham with IPS officer Sandeep Mittal. The ECI directed the state government to implement the changes by 6 pm on April 9 evening.
The change came about following multiple complaints from opposition parties alleging that the state machinery was being used to favour the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)-led government ahead of the Tamil Nadu Assembly polls scheduled for April 23.
“The Election Commission, tasked with conducting fair and free elections, executing the orders of the BJP under its rule is a matter of shame. The constitutional protection granted to the Election Commission is not for doing election work for the BJP. The Election Commission, operating with a dominant mindset in the BJP regime that strives to lead the country down an authoritarian path, failing to recognize this has dragged the dignity of the Commission to the streets,” CM Stalin said.
He further said that it was unbecoming of the Election Commission “to strive so eagerly to aid the electoral malpractices that the BJP, joining hands with AIADMK, plans to perpetrate in Tamil Nadu.” He claimed that the move poses a grave danger to our country and to free and fair elections.
“This jungle raj, where the BJP incites replacements of Chief Secretaries and DGPs only in states ruled by opposition parties, including Tamil Nadu, reflects that neither the Prime Minister, who brought a new law amendment saying ‘I myself will appoint the Chief Election Commissioner,’ defying the Supreme Court verdict, nor the Union BJP government he guides, will ever understand the sanctity of the Election Commission,” he added.