“Are you going to conduct Assembly elections or shall we hold it ourselves,” was the stern message issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI) team, led by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, during its tour of Telangana in the first week of October to review poll preparedness.
Since that interaction with Chief Secretary A. Santhi Kumar, DGP Anjani Kumar and top bureaucrats of the State, it became crystal clear for the IAS and IPS officers in Telangana that serious trouble was about to brew ahead of the Assembly elections.
As hinted, the ECI cracked the whip on Wednesday night taking the Telangana government by surprise transferring 13 IPS officers and Collectors of four districts. The Excise Commissioner, Transport Commissioner and Commercial Taxes Commissioner too faced the wrath of the Election Commission.
