New Delhi: The Election Commission Tuesday did a flip-flop by temporarily staying transfer order of a bureaucrat who had dared to stop motorcycle rally of the Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra on Monday.
Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Pawan Sen has transferred as Deputy Commission of South Goa hours within the stopped Vadra for violating model code of conduct since he was using more than permissible number of vehicles in his rally in Amethi assembly constituency of Uttar Pradesh.
The Election Commission tried to explain that the transfer orders were issued on Monday morning, much before Sen stopped Vadra, the action sparked off a political storm with the opponents of the Congress party terming it as an action meant to please the Gandhi family.
Priyanka
Vadra is married to Sonia's daughter Priyanka who is looking after party's interests in 10 assembly constituencies falling under Amethi and Rae Bareli parliamentary constituencies represented respectively by her brother Rahul Gandhi and mother Sonia.
Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi Tuesday said that Sen's transfer had been put on hold till February 19, when voting will be over in Amethi.
"In the morning we ordered that he will be posted on a higher responsibility of a collector. It is prestigious post for him. Later on in the evening if something happens in Amethi and the two things are not linked, it is a very strange and funny coincidence. In any case let us leave no case for any doubt or misinterpretation. We have ordered that he will leave his charge only after Amethi election," Quraishi said.
Opponents of the Congress party are however not convinced with this theory of co-incidence and are demanding a probe into the matter while saying such an action will demoralise bureaucrats ahead of crucial seven-phased elections in Uttar Pradesh starting Wednesday.
