3 min readKolkataMar 17, 2026 04:34 PM IST
First published on: Mar 17, 2026 at 04:03 PM IST
After transferring the chief secretary, home secretary, DGP, Kolkata police commissioner, and other top officials, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday reshuffled 12 police superintendents, four police commissioners, and a deputy police commissioner in Assembly poll-bound West Bengal. The ECI also deployed 478 central observers, the highest among the five states/UT going to the polls next month.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has protested against such “sweeping” transfers of administrative and police officials, expressing “deep concern and surprise” in a letter written to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, whom she asked to “refrain from adopting such unilateral measures in the future”.
On Sunday night and Monday, after the announcement of the poll dates, the ECI replaced Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty with Dushyant Nariala. Similarly, Home Secretary Jagdish Prasad Meena was replaced with Sanghamitra Ghosh. The poll body also replaced Director-General of Police Peeyush Pandey with 1992-batch IPS officer Siddh Nath Gupta. Ajay Kumar Nand was appointed police commissioner of Kolkata, replacing Supratim Sarkar.
On Tuesday, the EC ordered the posting of Rajesh Kumar Singh as ADG and IGP, South Bengal Region, and K Jayaraman as ADG and IGP, North Bengal. By the same order, it posted Pranav Kumar as Commissioner of Police, Asansol-Durgapur; Akhilesh Kumar Chaturvedi as Commissioner of Police, Howrah; Amit Kumar Singh as Commissioner of Police, Barrackpore; and Sunil Kumar Yadav as Commissioner of Police, Chandannagar.
Yeilwad Shrikant Jagannathrao is the new deputy commissioner for the Central Division of the Kolkata Police.
By a separate order, it posted police superintendents in 12 districts: Pushpa (Barasat police district), Jaspreet Singh (Coochbehar), Surya Pratap Yadav (Birbhum), Rakesh Singh (Islampur police district), Kumar Sunny Raj (Hooghly Rural), Ishani Paul (Diamond Harbour police district), Sachin (Murshidabad police district), Alaknanda Bhowal (Basirhat police district), Anupam Singh (Malda), Angshuman Saha (Purba Medinipur), Surinder Singh (Jangipur police district), and Papiya Sultana (Paschim Medinipur).
“The directions of the Commission to be implemented with immediate effect and a compliance report in respect of joining of above officers be sent by 11:00 AM on 18.03.2026. Further, the officers transferred out shall not be posted in any election-related posts till the completion of elections,” the ECI order stated.
The ECI stated that 478 central observers would be deployed in West Bengal to oversee the Assembly polls. These include 294 general observers—one each for a seat—84 police observers, and 100 expenditure observers for Bengal.
The observers will be stationed in the state by Wednesday.
The Special Intensive Revision of Karnataka's electoral rolls is progressing (File photo). 
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