Congress' Goa unit demands replacement of Chief Electoral Officer

Ahead of the elections to the state assembly, Congress' Goa unit has demanded a replacement of state Chief Electoral Officer Kunal. The party wrote to the election commission accusing the officer, who prefers to go by his first name, of bias.

"The officer besides being CEO is holding charge over some other government departments as Secretary. It is regrettable that despite expressing serious reservations over the conduct of Kunal in the past, the ECI has failed to take any action to replace him from the position of CEO," Congress state President Girish Chodankar wrote.

"It is an unfortunate situation wherein Kunal, who is from the AGMUT cadre, has been posted in Goa since the past six years which is unheard of for officers from the cadre. He has exhibited complete bias in favour of the party in power and has a prejudiced approach towards Congress," he added. He further noted that the party had lost confidence in Kunal's ability to work in a neutral manner in conducting the upcoming general elections of the Goa Assembly. He also alleged that it is against the norm for a bureaucrat to be holding a statutory position in the same post for six years.

"Hence it is once again reiterated that further continuation of Kunal as CEO Goa will be a blot on the neutrality of the CEO and as such he may be replaced with an officer who will have unflinching loyalty to duty of holding free and fair elections in the state," Chodankar said.