* Sarguja District Collector S. Raju is known to be close to the Jogi family and refers to Chief Minister Ajit Jogi and his wife, Renu, as ‘‘Daddy’’ and ‘‘Mummy’’.* Bastar Collector L.N. Suryavanshi and Jashpur Collector B.S. Anant distributed schoolbags embossed with Jogi’s photograph.* Suryavanshi also reportedly organised a programme for Renu Jogi to distribute bifocal spectacles to cataract patients.* Bilaspur Collector R.P. Mandal and Superintendent of Police S.R. Kalluri allegedly held a closed-door meeting with Jogi on November 3, during the CM’s campaign tour of his home district.* Kalluri also allegedly paid an NCP leader Rs 5 lakh to defect to the Congress last month. Little wonder then that Chief Election Commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh, in a damning verdict last week, declared Jogi’s babus to be worse than Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s. In its very first elections, Chhattisgarh has been hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons. ‘‘Even in Gujarat, officials were more impartial. Here, it seems the state officials are more partisan and biased,’’ said Lyngdoh at a meeting, on November 4, of 40-odd collectors, SPs and IGs of the state, held to review arrangements for the December 1 polls. With so many instances of overzealous officials dancing to Jogi’s tune, not many were surprised. Take Jashpur Collector B.S. Anant, who besides distributing the controversial schoolbags, is also accused of travelling with Jogi in his helicopter during the latter’s campaign tour. And long after polls were announced, Bastar Collector L.N. Suryavanshi invited Jogi’s wife, Renu, to distribute spectacles to cataract patients in his area. The EC ordered the transfer of these two collectors but they managed to obtain a stay from the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT). There are many other charges of officials committing poll violations, starting with the preparation of the electoral lists. So much so that Lyngdoh identified Chhattisgarh as the state with the maximum number of complaints. Shrugging off the charges of politicising the bureaucracy, Jogi said: ‘‘Nobody should raise questions about the integrity of the administration. I am the Chief Minister of this state and I have undertaken the responsibility of holding free and fair elections.’’ But the CEC is not convinced. Earlier this year, State Chief Electoral Officer Ajay Singh was removed from office following serious irregularities in preparation of the poll lists and voters’ identity cards. Openly flouting the CEC’s guidelines which don’t allow CEOs to hold any other government post, Singh was also Secretary in the Department of Energy. In fact, even the present incumbent, K.K. Chakravarti, a Principal Secretary who assumed the post in June, continued to hold his posts in the departments of Forest, Education and Art, Culture and Languages till the announcement of polls. At present, two collectors — R.P. Mandal of Bilaspur and S. Raju of Sarguja — are under the CEC scanner following charges of their proximity to Jogi. Referring to Raju, senior BJP MLA Brij Mohan Aggarwal, who led a party delegation to meet Lyngdoh, said: ‘‘How can you expect an official who addresses the CM as Daddy to be neutral or impartial?’’ The charges are more serious in the case of Bilaspur SP S.R. Kalluri. NCP leader Naushad Khan has accused Kalluri of paying him Rs 5 lakh, on behalf of Jogi, to defect to the Congress. Rejecting the State Government’s report, the CEC has sent an officer to investigate the complaints against Kalluri. Officials have been accused of booking Jogi’s opponents in many cases. In Raipur, BJP leaders were beaten up during a demonstration. Union Minister Dilip Singh Judeo faces charges of electricity theft. The state has also been accused of manipulating the monitoring panels set up to buy paddy stocks from farmers. Lyngdoh has directed the government to ensure that no non-officials are associated with paddy purchase.
