Gandhinagar: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has selected 35 IAS officers and 10 IPS officers from the Gujarat cadre to serve as election observers for the upcoming Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry, sources in the state government said.
The selected officers will be deputed to various poll-bound states to oversee the conduct of elections, in line with the ECI’s mandate to ensure free, fair and transparent electoral processes.
Training to Begin in First Week of February
According to government sources, the training of the selected officers will commence in the first week of February. During the period of deputation, the Gujarat government will have to make alternative arrangements, assigning additional charge to other officers to ensure uninterrupted administrative functioning in the state.
Sources added that the Gujarat government has formally written to the selected officers, asking them to report to the Election Commission of India as per instructions.
List of IAS Officers Selected as Election Observers
The following 35 Gujarat-cadre IAS officers have been selected by the ECI for election duties:
- Arti Kanwar
- Sandeep Kumar
- Roopwant Singh
- Swaroop P
- Pravin Solanki
- Avantika Singh Aulakh
- Rakesh Shankar
- Raj Kumar Beniwal
- Rajesh Manjhu
- Rajendra Kumar
- Rahul Gupta
- P Bharathi
- Ranjeet Kumar J
- Harshad Patel
- Alok Pandey
- Jenu Devan
- Sandip Sagale
- Dilip Rana
- Ardra Agarwal
- Ranjit Kumar Singh
- Dhaval Patel
- Mahesh Patel
- M Nagarajan
- Praveena D K
- Kuldeep Arya
- Vijay Kharadi
- Ratankanvar Gadhavicharan
- Ajay Prakash
- D D Jadeja
- Amit Arora
- Harshit Gosavi
- Stuti Charan
- Ashish Kumar
- Prabhav Joshi
- Neha Kumari
10 IPS Officers Selected for Election Duties
In addition, 10 Gujarat-cadre IPS officers have been chosen by the ECI to perform election-related responsibilities:
- A G Chauhan
- Bipin Ahire
- P L Mal
- Makrand Chauhan
- Vishal Vaghela
- Deepak Meghani
- Nirlipt Rai
- Chaitanya Mandlik
- Hitesh Joysar
- Mayur Patil
Gujarat Govt to Manage Administrative Adjustments
With a large number of senior officers proceeding on election duty, the state government will need to reallocate responsibilities during their absence. Officials indicated that temporary charge arrangements will be made to ensure smooth governance while officers are deployed in poll-bound states.
ECI’s Observer System Key to Free and Fair Elections
The appointment of IAS and IPS officers as election observers is a critical part of the ECI’s supervisory mechanism. Observers are tasked with monitoring election preparedness, law and order, expenditure, polling processes and adherence to the Model Code of Conduct in their assigned constituencies.
