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EC sends 15 IPS officers from Bengal for election observer duty in TN, Kerala, then pauses order for 5
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee lashed out at the EC’s ‘proactiveness’, alleging that the transfers were executed without state consultation.
From the home secretary to the state police chief, several senior officials in West Bengal have been removed from their posts since the Assembly elections were announced. (File photo)
In a swift turn of events, the Election Commission (EC) has partially rolled back its directive asking 15 high-ranking IPS officers from West Bengal to serve as election observers in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. While 10 officers must still report for duty immediately, five officials were granted a reprieve, sources confirmed on Wednesday night.
The five officers staying behind for now are Murlidhar Sharma (Police Commissioner, Bidhannagar), Syed Waqar Raza (Police Commissioner, Siliguri), Akash Magharia (Deputy Inspector General in the Intelligence Bureau (IB)), Amandeep (Special Superintendent, IB), and Praveen Kumar Tripathi (Inspector General of Police, Special Task Force).
The EC faced criticism for leaving vital urban centres like Siliguri and Bidhannagar headless ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections, by appointing their commissioners as observers without naming replacements.
The move also triggered a fierce war of words between the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee lashed out at the EC’s “proactiveness”, alleging that the transfers were executed without state consultation.
In a scathing social media post, Banerjee questioned the credibility of the electoral body on Thursday. “The contradictions in the Commission’s actions expose its complete collapse of credibility. It claims that removed officers should not be assigned election duties, yet within hours, the same officers are sent out as election observers,” she said.
“The appointment of the Commissioners of Police of Siliguri and Bidhannagar as observers, without even putting replacements in place… reflected chaos, confusion and sheer incompetence being passed off as authority,” she added.
The Opposition dismissed the chief minister’s allegations. Former state BJP president and Rajya Sabha MP Rahul Sinha said, “The ECI is taking some steps to ensure free and fair elections. Why is it so worrying for them? About a month ago, you transferred around 100 police officers. Why did you do that? What was the reason? Those were planned transfers. Now, the ECI is revising it…then they have issues. You can transfer people, and that is fine, but when changes happen in a different way, you start saying all this?”
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From the home secretary to the state police chief, several senior officials in West Bengal have been removed from their posts since the Assembly elections were announced.
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