New Delhi: Bowing to the demand of civil society groups, the Election Commission Thursday removed SB Shashank as chief electoral officer of poll-bound Mizoram and appointed IAS officer Ashish Kundra in his place.
The order came after some civil society groups in Mizoram demanded Shashank’s ouster over a row on allowing Bru voters lodged in Tripura relief camps to exercise their franchise from there.
“The Election Commission of India in consultation with the Government of Mizoram hereby nominates Ashish Kundra as the chief electoral officer for the state of Mizoram with immediate effect,’’ a notification issued by the EC said.
The poll panel had earlier asked the Mizoram government for a panel of names to replace Shashank, who has been camping in Delhi since the agitation against him began a fortnight ago.
Mizoram goes to the polls November 28.
The NGO Coordination Committee, the apex body of civil societies and students’ organisations in Mizoram, has been demanding that Shashank be replaced as chief electoral officer and transferred outside the north-eastern state.
It also demanded that 11,232 Bru voters in six Tripura relief camps be allowed to exercise their franchise at their respective polling stations in Mizoram and not in Tripura as committed by the poll panel in 2014.
The committee had called for Shashank’s exit from the state shortly after the EC removed the state’s principal secretary (Home) Lalnunmawia Chuaungo.
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