Raipur: Placing poll-bound Chhattisgarh under his intense scanner, Chief Election Commissioner J M Lyngdoh today (November 4) came down heavily on the "partisan" attitude of the State bureaucracy saying that even in Gujarat the officials were more impartial.

At the end of a day-long visit by the three-member Central Election Commission, he gave a stern warning to the State administration that the model code of conduct should be strictly obeyed and people at the highest level would be held responsible for lapses on that count.

Asked at a press conference how confident he was about proper Assembly elections in the State, Lyngdoh said, "I was more confident in Gujarat inspite of everything because they (the State administration) were ineffective in controlling the riot but thereafter they were very professional. But I am not so sure about this (Chhattisgarh) administration".

Earlier, addressing a meeting of District Collectors, Superintendents of Police and Inspector Generals, the CEC said Chhattisgarh officials "are working more with a partisan and biased attitude".

"I wonder why we are talking here because it appears we do not have any common ground," Lyngdoh is understood to have told the meeting held to review arrangements for the December 1 polls to the 90- member State Assembly.

"Even in Gujarat, officials were more impartial but here it seems the State officials are more partisan and biased," he told the meeting.

PTI