'Neither publicity nor a stunt': IAS officer sacked from Gujarat poll duty over social media post

IAS officer Abhishek Singh shared another tweet stating his post was neither publicity nor a stunt, hours after being relieved of his electoral duties in Gujarat for posting about his new job on social media.

On Friday, the Election Commission (EC) said that Abhishek Singh, an officer from the 2011 batch, had utilised his official position as a "publicity stunt" by using Instagram to share his status as a general observer.

However, the officer from the Uttar Pradesh cadre made it clear that he accepts the Election Commission "with utmost humility."  Singh stated in a tweet, "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."

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The IAS officer announced his new position on Thursday by captioning an Instagram image, "Joined Ahmedabad as Observer for Gujarat Elections."

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Additionally, Singh has been banned from performing any election-related tasks up until further notice. The officer was also instructed to report to his nodal officer in the parent cadre right away after leaving the constituency for which he had been given responsibility. The letter demanded that all government facilities given to him to help him perform his observer responsibilities be taken away. 

Singh has been replaced by Krishan Bajpai, another IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer. Gujarat will hold two rounds of elections on December 1 and 5. On December 8, the results will be made public.

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• Abhishek Singh
• Gujarat
• Gujarat Election 2022
• IAS
• social media
• Election Commission