Kolkata/New Delhi, Mar 16 (PTI) The Election Commission has removed the West Bengal Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, Director General of Police, and Kolkata police commissioner, among others, in an unprecedented administrative shake-up in the state ahead of the high-stakes assembly polls.
The EC’s action, which came hours after it announced the poll schedule on Sunday, triggered a sharp reaction from state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who branded the poll panel and the ruling BJP as “anti-women and anti-Bengal” and called the move a “panic reaction by a party that realises it cannot win elections through democratic means.” However, EC officials maintained that the transfers aligned with Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s assurance to hold free and fair polls in the state. Although the commission has previously ordered pre-poll transfers of top bureaucrats and police officers, it has never transferred the state’s bureaucratic and police top brass —the most crucial officers forming the crux of state administration—all at once, and also forbade them from taking part in election-related activities.
The polls for the 294-member state assembly will be held on April 23 and 29, and votes will be counted on May 4. While the commission’s first order, issued late Sunday evening, instructed the removal of the state’s two top bureaucrats -Chief Secretary Nandini Chakravorty and Home Secretary Jagdish Prasad Meena- a subsequent order, dated March 16, removed the state’s DGP Peeyush Pandey and Kolkata CP Supratim Sarkar, who were among four top IPS officers in Bengal replaced ahead of the elections.
Significantly, immediately after the EC directive, the West Bengal government issued a notification on Monday, transferring and posting several senior IPS officers, including Pandey and Sarkar, with immediate effect.
While Pandey has been posted as director (security), Sarkar has been appointed additional director general (ADG), CID, with additional charge of ADG, Intelligence Branch, Kolkata, according to the notification issued by the state’s Home and Hill Affairs Department.
The EC appointed Dushyant Nariala, an IAS officer of the 1993 batch and additional chief secretary of the state’s North Bengal Development department, as the state’s chief secretary. Sanghamitra Ghosh, a 1997-batch IAS officer and secretary of the Women and Child Development department, was appointed as state home secretary.
It also appointed senior IPS officer Siddh Nath Gupta, a 1992 batch IPS officer, as the DGP, and brought in Ajay Kumar Nand (IPS-1996) as the new commissioner of Kolkata Police. Nand served as ADG (Counter Insurgency Force) before this posting.
Vineet Goyal, ADG (Law and Order), was replaced by Ajay Mukund Ranade (IPS-1995) and appointed Natarajan Ramesh Babu, a senior IPS officer of the 1991 batch, as DG (Correctional Services).
The poll panel said its directions are to be implemented with immediate effect, and asked for a report of the joining of all the officers in their respective offices.
“…the officers transferred out shall not be posted in any election-related posts till the completion of elections,” a communication, signed by commission secretary Sujeet Kr Mishra, said.
In May, 2019, the commission had transferred Atri Bhattacharya from his post of home secretary during the Lok Sabha elections following an instance of violence during a BJP rally in Kolkata.
The EC accused Bhattacharya of interfering with the electoral process by directing the state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) regarding the deployment of central armed police forces (CAPF).
In April, 2016, the commission removed Rajeev Kumar, then Kolkata Police commissioner, during the six-phase state elections after opposition parties alleged that he was partial in handling complaints about the ruling TMC.
Kumar was again transferred by the EC as the state’s acting DGP in July 2024 ahead of the general elections that year.
Top EC officials justified the latest spate of transfers on grounds of ensuring administrative impartiality and strict adherence to law during the upcoming high-stakes elections, the process for which has now been initiated.
“Chief Election Commissioner Kumar, in his press conference on Sunday, had assured that elections in West Bengal would be violence-free and peaceful. In pursuance of this objective, the ECI has transferred senior police officials of West Bengal, including the DGP and the Kolkata Police commissioner,” a senior Election Commission official told PTI.
Officials also noted that during the commission’s full bench visit to Kolkata last week to review poll preparedness of the state, Kumar had reportedly reprimanded Goyal and questioned the absence of a Narcotics Advisory Committee in Bengal.
The reshuffle was enforced in the wake of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress dispensation’s constant criticism of the poll body over the ongoing SIR exercise in the state. PTI SMY/NAB/NES/SCH HIG BDC PYK PYK
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