The Election Commission has removed the biographer of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad from election duty in Bihar.

Official sources in the state home department said the government shifted Dr Harivansh Narayan, better known as biographer of Lalu, as the deputy development commissioner-cum-returning officer of the Vaishali assembly constituency on the directive of the commission.

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Narayan wrote the Railway minister's biography in the 90s. A chapter of the biography titled "Mitti ke Gaurav" was included in the standard VIII curriculum as an essential reading by the Bihar Secondary School Board during the RJD rule.

He described Lalu as a mass leader, "an anmol ratan" (rare jewel) who had been the "prime source of inspiration for the socially backward and under-priviledged classes of Bihar."

Last week, the comission asked the state government to immediately remove Narayan from election duty and appoint another competent officer in his place. It is said that Lalu's biographer managed to land up with several key posts during the RJD rule before finally being posted as the DDC of Hajipur.

This is not the first time that the EC has cracked the whip on officials reportedly close to Lalu and his party. So far, the EC has shuffled 25 IAS, 34 IPS, 54 Bihar Administrative Service and 45 officers of the Bihar Police Service since the poll process began in the state.

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