Bengal Governor 'Returns' State Election Commissioner's Joining Letter

West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose has refused to accept the joining report of State Election Commissioner Rajiv Sinha.

This comes hours after Rajiv Sinha failed to meet CV Ananda Bose when he was summoned for an explanation over the violence and clashes during nomination filing for the panchayat poll earlier this month, the source said.

Rajiv Sinha, who was also called by the Governor also on June 17 at Raj Bhavan, did not appear, stating that he was preoccupied with scrutiny of the nominations for the upcoming panchayat polls.

Governor Bose had approved Rajiv Sinha's appointment after the state government proposed his name earlier this month. Rajiv Sinha served as West Bengal's Chief Secretary from September 2019 to September 2020.

Sources say there is no such precedent in the recent past when a Governor refused to accept the joining report and it is still not clear what will happen next.

According to the law, the process for removal of election commissioners is through impeachment. In this case, the state election commissioner was chosen by the Governor himself from a list of three names sent by the state government.

The BJP was upset with Rajiv Sinha's appointment as he was perceived to be close to the ruling Trinamool Congress. Sources say the state BJP Leadership had been putting pressure to push for his removal from the post.

"The position of West Bengal state Election Commissioner is becoming increasingly untenable. Apart from being transparently partisan in favour of the ruling dispensation, he has mocked repeated judicial verdicts on the conduct of panchayat elections. The Governor erred in appointing him in the first place. Now he must refuse to confirm him in the post. Appoint an efficient, non-partisan SEC," BJP Leader Swapan Dasgupta tweeted.

West Bengal BJP President Sukanta Majumdar had said, "The Governor has the right to exercise his powers and he is the custodian of the constitution, and he is only the appointing authority. The court has also pulled up the state election commissioner and said if you cannot fulfil your duties, you can go and submit your resignation to the Governor. The exercise of power of the Governor is clear in the court order. Naturally, the Governor has used his powers."

"If you do not respond to the calls of your appointing authority, without showing any proper reason, you may not go if you don't want to, but you have to show a proper reason for that. Unfortunately, the state election commissioner has not done this. Which is why the Governor has exercised his powers and done his job. What the next steps will be, only the Governor can say," Sukanta Majumdar added.