India, Nov. 2 -- Official deployment records reviewed by The Sunday Guardian show that officers from the Gujarat cadre form only a small fraction of those appointed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) as observers for the ongoing Bihar Assembly elections, contradicting social media claims that "only Gujaratis" were being sent to supervise the polls.

According to the data examined by this newspaper, 243 IAS officers have been designated as general observers across Bihar's 243 Assembly constituencies, while 38 IPS officers have been assigned as police observers. Together, they form the core of the central observer team responsible for monitoring polling, expenditure, and adherence to the Model Code of Conduct. Among them, only 15 IAS...