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New Delhi, Aug 13 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal-United (JD-U), which together form the government in Bihar, Friday termed the opposition allegation of posting of officials on caste-basis by the state government as wrong and intended to prejudice the Election Commission ahead of the assembly elections.

Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley and JD-U president Sharad Yadav, who led a delegation to the Election Commission, said that the allegations were not only false but "designed to create caste hatred and disturb social harmony maintained by the state government over the past four-and-a-half years".

In a memorandum, the National Democratic Alliance leaders said that the opposition had complained to the poll panel about 44 officers of a particular caste having been posted as sub-divisional officers and had alleged partisan attitude of officers on inter-state deputation posted as district magistrates.

The NDA leaders said the opposition leaders had also spoken against associating panchayat teachers, members of special auxiliary police force and some other officials with the elections due in October-November.

"In posting of an officer to a certain post, caste has absolutely no role... To attribute motive in respect of posting officers on caste basis is nothing but calculated to have been made with a definite purpose to malign the image of state government and prejudice the commission against those officers," the memorandum said.

Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Qureshi had visited Bihar earlier this week in connection with preparations for the assembly polls.

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