Decision on new election commissioner to be taken at appropriate time: Bengal Guv

Kolkata, May 30 (IANS) A decision on the appointment of new state election commissioner in West Bengal will be taken at appropriate time, Governor C.V. Ananda Bose said on Tuesday.

However, he did not give any specific deadline by when his office will clear the new name for the chair from those recommended by the state government,

The Governor's statement comes at a point when the post of the West Bengal State Election Commission has been lying vacant. The tenure of Sourav Das has ended already and the office of the Governor is yet to give clearance for any of the two names recommended by the state secretariat. Initially, the state government recommended the name of the former state chief secretary Rajiva Sinha.

However, as the Governor refused to take any decision based on a single recommendation, the state government recommended the name of Ajit Ranjan Bardhan, the current additional chief secretary to the North Bengal Development Department. However, a third recommendation has been sought from the office of the governor now.

The crisis on this count is looming in the backdrop of the forthcoming elections to the three-tier panchayat system in the state.

However, bureaucratic circles are of the opinion that although the matter may be delayed for some time, ultimately the Governor House will have to choose any one name from those recommended by the state government. There is not much provision for the Governor House to insist on its own choice for the post of state election commissioner unless the state government agrees on that, pointed out a bureaucrat on strict condition of anonymity.

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