Bhubaneswar: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday announced the deployment of 470 central observers to oversee the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections and eight bye-elections in various states, including the Nuapada Assembly segment in Odisha.
Of the total observers, 320 are officers from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), 60 from the Indian Police Service (IPS), and the remaining 90 belong to services such as the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS), and Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS).
The observers will monitor the Bihar Assembly elections along with bypolls in Jammu and Kashmir (Budgam and Nagrota constituencies), Rajasthan (Anta constituency), Jharkhand (Ghatsila constituency), Telangana (Jubilee Hills constituency), Punjab (Tarn Taran constituency), Mizoram (Dampa constituency), and Odisha (Nuapada constituency).
“The Observers work under the superintendence, control, and discipline of the Commission from their appointment until the completion of the election process. They are entrusted with the crucial and solemn responsibility of ensuring the fairness, impartiality, and credibility of elections, which ultimately form the bedrock of our democratic polity. They act as the eyes and ears of the Commission and report periodically and as needed,” the press release stated.
The press note further emphasised that the primary role of the observers is “to identify areas for improvement and to formulate concrete and actionable recommendations.”
The bye-election in the Nuapada Assembly constituency has been necessitated following the demise of sitting MLA Rajendra Dholakia on September 8 due to health-related issues.
