By Ashraf Padanna
Thiruvananthapuram: In what is seen as a huge setback for Kerala’s ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), the Election Commission of India (ECI) yesterday directed the state government to shift a top district administrator.
The ECI directed the state’s chief secretary to remove V K Balakrishnan as district collector of Kannur after hundreds of bogus voters have allegedly appeared on the electoral rolls ahead of the by-poll. The officials are accused of having turned a blind eye to the irregularities.
The Kannur assembly segment goes to polls on November 7 along with Alappuzha and Ernakulam.
Balakrishnan was appointed as the district collector immediately after the April-May elections.
The ECI has asked the chief secretary to submit a list of three IAS officers to be considered as replacement for Balakrishnan, who is also the district election officer and the district magistrate, official sources said.
The ECI reportedly wanted former collector Dinesh Aurora, presently the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) director, to be reinstated or Anand Singh to be shifted from the neighbouring Kasaragod district.
Chief secretary Neela Gangadharan, however, submitted a list of three suitable officers.
Congress party-led opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) leaders had on Tuesday met the chief election commissioner Naveen Chawla in New Delhi and demanded the removal of the collector among other things. The ECI reportedly took the decision on a report from Nalini Netto, the chief electoral officer in Kerala.
Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan strongly protested the ECI move stating it should not issue directions to the state government after being dictated by the Congress party.  “It’s a constitutional body and you should forget that,” he said. “It’s not proper on the part of the election commission to issue directions to the state government on the appointment of district collectors,” he said.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) which leads the LDF also came out heavily against the ECI saying it had become “puppets in the hands of the Congress leaders” and was “overstepping its constitutional powers”.