The Election Commission (EC) took a “serious note” of the deep distrust and apprehension that political parties had about the Gujarat police and called for the list of present postings of officials whose role during the 2002 assembly elections had been dubious.

The EC team, headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) N Gopalswamy, also called for a list of police and government officials connected with election duties, transferred recently after the parties alleged that the transfers had been done with political intentions.

The team, comprising Mr Gopalswamy, Dr S Y Quraishi, Vinod Babbar and Navin Chawla, reached Ahmedabad on Wednesday evening to take stock of the poll preparedness.

The team also met top officials including the Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary, Home, and a team of top police officials. With the present term of Gujarat Assembly ending on December 25, elections will be held before that although the CEC claimed that the exact date is not decided as yet. 

Mr Gopalswamy said most political parties had apprehensions about the Gujarat police and wanted it to be kept away from the poll process. “We had been told that several officers who had been transferred by the EC during the 2002 elections have been brought back. We have called for a list of such officials,” Mr Gopalswamy claimed.

The massive reshuffle of several top officials and IAS officers in the recent past has caused deep consternation among political parties and the EC team asked for specific instances of such transfers that included tainted officials having a poor record of election duty. Meanwhile, the Congress, NCP and the Samajwadi Party (SP) has sought elections in one phase while the BJP demanded that polls be conducted in two phases,whereas the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has asked for the polls to be carried out in four phases as in Uttar Pradesh.

The CEC claimed that voter identity cards will be the only valid document as it planned to achieve the target of issuing cards to 95 per cent voters before elections.

He claimed that several parties had demanded the immediate implementation of the model code of conduct but the Supreme Court guidelines were clear that it cannot be enforced for more than 21 days before the passing of notification. “Earlier, it came into force as soon as the intention to hold a election was announced but now the Supreme Court guidelines have to be adhered to,” he said.

He claimed that parties had complained that TV channel owners were being forced to show other channels in place of the Doordarshan whereas the BJP demanded that the DD was known to have a pro-Congress tilt and should be asked to be more balanced in their coverage.

He said that the parties had complained about speeches that had religious overtones and that religious places should not be allowed to be used for campaigning.