Ever since the elections were announced, the phones in the Nirvachan Sadan headquarters of the Election Commission have not stopped ringing. No it's not political parties calling to check out the rules or political factions seeking an election symbol.

The callers belong to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the country's venerable steelframe, each of them trying to wangle the constituency of their choice to carry out their manadatory duty as election observers.

Election time and some 2,000 IAS, Customs, Excise and Revenue officials are assigned duties to oversee the conduct of the elections. While the IAS officers serve as generalobservers, the Customs and Revenue officials are expenditure observers keeping tabs on the money spent by candidates and their parties during the election campaign.

Being an election observer is not an easy task. The elections this time round are spread over nearly a month. Quite apart from the bother of having to stay away from their homes for a long spell, are the contingencies of the job itself. Being incharge of law and order, ensuring that the elections are conducted in a free and fair manner, that poll arrangements are smooth and that adequate security is provided to both candidates and voters to exercise their franchise, are a tall order. The election observers brief: to serve as the ``eyes and ears'' of the EC in their respective constituencies.

Small wonder then that Joint Secretaries and Director-level IAS officers are pulling out all stops to get the constituency of their choice.

Every IOU has been encashed. Anyone with any kind of connection to the Election Commission has pulled strings,rank or any variety of influence to see that they get a constituency which holds some attraction.

Topping the list of favoured constituencies are Andaman and Nicobar and the Lakhshadweep islands, Goa, Daman and Diu, Leh and Ladakh, including those areas which are out of bounds for normal Indians, Himachal Pradesh, the southern hill resorts like Ooty and Kodaikanal, Mysore, Bangalore, and almost all of Kerala. Another set of hot favourites, Jaisalmer and Udaipur in Rajasthan and Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh.

Quite naturally, there are few takers for high-risk and violence-prone areas like Bihar and Eastern UP, parts of naxalite-infested Andhra Pradesh, troubled areas of the North-East and parts of Jammu and Kashmir. At the same time, there are officers who quietly accept without demur whatever constituency they are given. In the post-Kargil atmosphere, with patriotic feelings at a high, there's also the breed which is seeking out the most challenging assignment.

But for those who consider theirassignment as ``difficult or inconvenient'', then begins the rounds of petitioning the State Chief Secretaries to write to the Election Commission, saying that the incumbent's services are desperately required elsewhere and that he or she may be exempted from electoral duties.

The Election Commission has already chosen the 2,000-odd observers for the upcoming polls. On an average, three observers are assigned to a constituency, two general and one expenditure observer for each of the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies. There are also some officers kept in reserve, who will be rushed to a constituency if reinforcements are required, or if any observer falls ill.

The observers were given a three-day briefing last week at Nirvachan Sadan, made familiar with the do's and dont's of the model code of conduct and the kind of reports they would have to file from their respective constituencies, before, during and after the polls. Already the election observers whose constituencies go to the polls in the first phasehave visited their aeas to check on the election and security arrangements and hold consultations with the district magistrate and district electoral officers.