It was unusual for a Governor to seek the transfer of the officer holding him responsible for the ``duplicate ballot boxes'' bearing identical numbers even before the Chief Electoral Officer, A.K. Basu, had completed his inquiry.

M. Kumar, secretary to the Governor, wrote to the Chief Secretary: ``In Samastipur district, as against the original identification of 440 duplicate boxes, the DEO has reported later that only eight are duplicate.''

The letter added: ``In this background, serious apprehensions are being raised regarding fairness of the election process....The scope for suspicion is considerably aroused in the case of Samastipur and inall fairness, it may warrant a change of the DEO of Samastipur at this juncture.''

The Chief Secretary, S.N. Biswas, directed the Governor's desire to the Election Commission.

Sayan Chatterjee, Deputy Election Commissioner, sent a strong missive the very next day. ``His Excellency, the governor has expressed certain observations about the role of the DEO, Samastipur. We are separately asking the Chief Electoral Officer to make a personal inquiry into the issue of duplicate ballot boxes in Samastipur. However, once the elections are due and the Model Code of Conduct is in force, any change in the DEO can take place only on the directions of the EC.''