Bhopal: A Whatsapp chat of two women bureaucrats from Madhya Pradesh’s Shahdol district, in which the local collector is asking her deputy to work in favour of the BJP during the just concluded assembly polls, has gone viral.
The chat (News18 does not vouch for its veracity) has been termed as fake by both officials, who said no such conversation had taken place.
While collector Anubha Srivastava called it a “mischievous act” by someone, deputy collector Puja Tiwari said she had lodged an FIR with local police, urging them to initiate action against those who prepared this “forged clip of the chat”.
In the viral chat, Tiwari messages the collector that the Congress candidate Uma Dhurve was taking lead in Jaitpur assembly constituency and the collector purportedly responds to her that she should ensure a BJP win if she wants to take charge as SDM after the polls.
Tiwari, who is serving on probation, cautiously agrees and asks whether it could pose any trouble for her later, to which the collector responds that she need not be concerned, according to the chat messages on social media. Srivastava allegedly also promised her that she would be appointed SDM once BJP wins.
Speaking to News18, Tiwari claimed that she was posted as an assistant returning officer at Jaisinghnagar and had no control over what was happening at Jaitpur. “We were also not allowed to keep mobile phones inside the counting centre,” she said.
Declining to name anyone, the officer termed this a conspiracy against her and the district collector.
The BJP had won all three assembly seats in Shahdol district. At Jaitpur, BJP’s Manish Singh had defeated Congress’ Uma Dhurve in a closely fought poll. Singh garnered 74,279 votes while her opponent secured 70,063 votes.
Taking the matter into cognizance, chief electoral officer of MP, VL Kantha Rao, had a word with both the officers, but there is no word on whether an inquiry has been ordered yet.
Before the elections, the Congress had persistently alleged partisan behavior from several bureaucrats.