Chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has asked top Bengal bureaucrats not to interfere in the election process or instruct officials engaged in poll work, making it clear that the Election Commission of India would not tolerate such activities.

The instructions, sources said, came during a meeting between the Election Commission and top state government officials, including chief secretary Nandini Chakravorty and the director-general of police Peeyush Pandey, in Calcutta on Tuesday as a part of the three-day visit of the full bench to Calcutta to check Bengal’s poll preparedness.

“The Election Commission knows how to hold polls in a free and fair manner. From time to time, the EC gives instructions to officials who conduct the polls. We have heard that you interfere in between and give instructions to officials, including the district election officers and superintendents of police. This will not be tolerated any further. Please stop interfering,” the CEC was quoted as saying by an official present in the meeting.

An official present at Tuesday’s meeting said the CEC also mentioned that after the full bench of the EC met the DMs — who are the DEOs — on Monday, they were summoned to Nabanna. Reportedly, the CEC concluded the meeting with the DMs/DEOs to give them enough time to reach their districts. However, they were called to Nabanna to convey what transpired during the meeting with the EC.

“The DMs were allowed to leave early as they needed time to reach their districts and get rest. But you called them to Nabanna to know about their meeting with the EC full bench. This should not be the approach. You should not interfere,” CEC Kumar was quoted as saying.

Sources said that Kumar raised these issues as the EC had received several complaints of Nabanna officials “repeatedly interfering” during the SIR exercise and “creating barriers” in completing the exercise properly.

“For example, the electoral registration officers (EROs) and the assistant EROs delayed uploading documents of the voters soon after hearings were completed on instructions from a section of the Nabanna officials. This had resulted in trouble for nearly 1.5 lakh voters whose documents were not uploaded on time. These voters were put under the adjudication category,” said an official.

EC officials alleged several ineligible documents were uploaded on “instructions” from some top bureaucrats. “The EC had given examples to the DEOs during a video-conference on how blank pages and newspaper cuttings were uploaded instead of specified documents. The EC came to know that such documents were uploaded due to pressure from some top officials who wanted no voter deleted despite ineligibility,” said a source.

A senior official believed that had the SIR been conducted properly, the deleted voters could have got the scope to appeal to the DEO and the CEO to restore their names to the voter list. “They could have arranged a required document by this time and presented their case before the DEO or the CEO. If the case was genuine, their names could have been included in the list before the polls. But now, it is unclear how many of the cases under adjudication would get into the rolls before the elections. The situation has turned critical only because of the interference of some state government officials in the SIR process,” he said.