The Jharkhand government’s September 2 letter accusing Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan of having a “propensity to foment hatred” was written to promote “an avoidable narrative of violation of federal space”, the Election Commission has said, reported The Indian Express on Friday.

On September 2, Jharkhand Cabinet Secretary Vandana Dadel told the poll panel that Sarma and Chouhan have “indulged in provocative and hostile statements, blatant allegations to the media against the administration of the state” on each visit, according to the newspaper.

On June 17, the Bharatiya Janata Party appointed Sarma and Chouhan to oversee the party’s operations for the Assembly elections in Jharkhand. The date for the polls is yet to be announced. Both leaders have since made frequent visits to the state.

Responding to Dadel’s letter on Monday, the poll panel called it “more of a posturing”, The Indian Express reported.

The letter was written “apparently to avoid compliance of lawful directions of ECI [Election Commission] on evidently untenable grounds”, it claimed.

The Election Commission said that after it issued an order against former Deoghar Deputy Commissioner Manjunath Bhajantri on December 6, 2021, he had challenged it in the Jharkhand High Court. Subsequently, he got relief from the court.

Last month, another two-judge bench stayed the order that had granted Bhajantri relief after the poll panel appealed against the previous direction.

“Accordingly, the ECI direction of December 6, 2021 to initiate disciplinary proceedings for major penalty against the said officer [Bhajantri] no longer can be legally eclipsed by the state government,” the Election Commission said, citing the court order.

Dadel, in the letter, claimed that the BJP was trying to “create communal tension”, The Indian Express reported. Sarma and Chouhan were dissuading government servants from discharging their duties by making “provocative and hostile statements, blatant allegations” against them, he added.

The letter also noted the “removal and debarment” of former Bhajantri from poll duty by the Election Commission in 2021.

This had come after BJP MP from Godda Nishikant Dubey, in a complaint to the poll panel, accused Bhajantri of filing cases against him with a “malafide intention” during a bye-election that year.