The Jharkhand government’s September 2 letter accusing Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan of having a “propensity to foment hatred”
On June 17, the Bharatiya Janata Party appointed Sarma and Chouhan to oversee the party’s operations for the Assembly elections in Jharkhand. The date for the polls is yet to be announced.
The letter was written “apparently to avoid compliance of lawful directions of ECI [Election Commission] on evidently untenable grounds”, it claimed.
The Election Commission said that after it issued an order against former Deoghar Deputy Commissioner Manjunath Bhajantri on December 6, 2021, he had challenged it in the Jharkhand High Court.
Last month, another two-judge bench stayed the order that had granted Bhajantri relief after the poll panel appealed against the previous direction.
“Accordingly, the ECI direction of December 6, 2021 to initiate disciplinary proceedings for major penalty against the said officer
This had come after BJP MP from Godda Nishikant Dubey, in a complaint to the poll panel, accused Bhajantri of filing cases against him with a “malafide intention” during a bye-election that year.