Major Shake-Up in West Bengal's Electoral Office: Key Officials Transferred

Significant Changes in West Bengal's Election Administration

Kolkata: On Monday afternoon, the Election Commission of India (ECI) executed a significant reshuffle by removing four prominent officials from the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) office in West Bengal, including a Deputy CEO.

Subrata Pal, the Deputy CEO and a 2005 batch West Bengal Civil Service (Executive) officer, has been reassigned to the West Bengal Health and Family Welfare Department as Senior Deputy Secretary.

Additionally, two Additional Secretaries, Narendra Nath Dutta and Supriya Das, along with Joint Secretary Mithu Sarkar, have also been transferred from the CEO's office.

The ECI has yet to announce their successors.

In a related move, Rahul Nath, a WBCS (Executive) officer from the 2001 batch and former Additional Secretary in the Health and Family Welfare Department, has been appointed as Joint CEO of West Bengal.

Dutta will now serve as Additional Secretary in the state Labour Department, while Das has been reassigned to the state Food Processing Industries & Horticulture Department.

Sarkar has been moved to the state Minority Affairs & Madrasah Education Department as Joint Secretary.

Sources within the CEO's office indicated that these changes were made following recommendations from Manoj Kumar Agarwal, the CEO of West Bengal.

Despite the announcement of election dates and the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct, the ECI has been actively transferring various bureaucrats and police officials across different administrative levels. This marks the first instance of such transfers affecting the CEO's office.

Currently, two public interest litigations have been submitted to the Calcutta High Court, contesting these transfers and the deployment of bureaucrats and police officers from West Bengal to other states in the lead-up to the two-phase Assembly elections scheduled for next month.