'Publicity Stunt': EC Sacks IAS Officer From Poll Duty For Sharing Pics Of Assignment On Social Media

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posted on 2 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Singh shared two pictures on his Instagram, and Twitter accounts showing him standing next to a car that has a signboard saying "Election Commission of India-OBSERVER."

A Uttar Pradesh IAS officer has been sacked by the Election Commission as a general observer for the Gujarat Elections after he posted pictures of his assignment on his social media accounts. The commission has termed this as a “publicity stunt.”

In a strongly-worded letter, the EC said that Abhishek Singh–I, a 2011-batch officer, used Instagram for sharing his posting as a general observer and used his official position as a “publicity stunt”.

The poll panel, EC adds, took a “very serious” view of the matter and has therefore decided to relieve Singh of all his duties as a general observer.

Singh reacted to the announcement by saying that he accepts the decision with all humility, but believes that there was nothing wrong in the post.

“I accept the Hon’ble ECI’s decision with all humility. Though I believe there’s nothing wrong in this post. A public servant, in a car bought by public’s money, reporting for public duty, with public officials, communicating it to the public. It is neither publicity nor a stunt,” Singh tweeted.

Singh shared two pictures on his accounts on Instagram and Twitter. The first picture shows him standing next to a car that has a signboard saying “Election Commission of India-OBSERVER.”

In the second one reportedly shows him and other officials along with an armed policeman. The post’s caption says, “joined Ahmedabad as Observer for Gujarat Elections.” Singh has over 3 million followers on Instagram.

He shared the same post on his Twitter account too.

I accept the Hon’ble ECI’s decision with all humility ????Though I believe there’s nothing wrong in this post. A public servant, in a car bought by public’s money, reporting for public duty,with public officials, communicating it to the public. It is neither publicity nor a stunt! https://t.co/T89c1K6PMi— Abhishek Singh (@Abhishek_asitis) November 18, 2022

Singh has also been debarred from any election-related duty till further orders.

Apart from this, he has been instructed to leave the constituency of which he was given the responsibility and report to his nodal officer in the parent cadre with immediate effect. Singh was handling Bapunagar and Asarwa assembly seats in Ahmedabad district

All government facilities provided to him to facilitate the discharge of his observer duties be withdrawn, the letter said, PTI reported.

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