A group of 57 retired bureaucrats have urged India's top electoral authority to disown Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party and cancel its poll symbol after its chief Arvind Kejriwal allegedly tried to induce public servants to work for his party in the Gujarat polls to be held in December.
To be recognized by the Election Commission of India (ECI), a political party needs a physical office, a unique party symbol, office bearers, and a constitution. In addition, the party's accounts - money received and spent - must be entirely transparent and available to the electoral body.
Moreover, no party in India can seek favors from civil servants or the police as the constitution states that they should remain apolitical.
Kejriwal and other senior politicians of his party have been campaigning vigorously in Gujarat, hoping to make deep inroads in a state that has been a BJP fortress since the Nineties.
The BJP has ruled India's western state Gujarat for the past 27 years. But Kejriwal has been presenting his party - AAP - as an alternative to the BJP's government there.
However, his appeal to the state's public servants, asking them to work secretly for his party, has outraged a section of bureaucrats and diplomats, which is why they have urged the Election Commission of India to strike off the AAP.
The letter was sent to India's Chief Election Commissioner, Rajiv Kumar, by retired civil servant M Madan Gopal on Thursday. A total of 56 other bureaucrats signed the letter in which they said that Kejriwal's remarks violated the electoral body's rules.
"Whatever [Kejriwal] said in Rajkot during a press conference was very wrong. We who believe in the constitution were disturbed. Such an unbalanced and controversial statement - from a [State Chief] what's more, [is not expected]," Gopal wrote in his letter to Rajiv Kumar.
The signatories accused the AAP authorities of making efforts to politicize public servants to improve their electoral prospects in the state.
"Mr Kejriwal called upon public servants, including policemen, home guards, state transport drivers and conductors and polling booth officers, to aid the AAP in the forthcoming state elections," the letter added.
The bureaucrats reiterated that they were completely opposed to the AAP's efforts to politicize civil servants because they should serve the government of the day without any kind of bias.