EC removes West Bengal Chief Secretary Chakraborty, Home Secretary Meena after announcing poll dates
While Chakraborty will be replaced by Dushyant Nariala, Sanghamitra Ghosh will take over as the new Home Minister.
Additionally, ECI directly suspended seven AEROs.
ECI has appointed Dushyant Nariala, an IAS of 1993 batch, as the new Chief Secretary of West Bengal, the ECI said in a letter seen by ET. Sanghamitra Ghosh, an IAS of 1997 batch, has been appointed as Principal Secretary, Home and Hill Affairs, West Bengal, the ECI said in a letter seen by ET. The ECI said that the Election Commission’s directions will come into effect immediately and a report on the attendance of the above-mentioned officers will be sent by 3 pm on March 16 (Monday).
The ECI also said that the “transferred” officers (current Chief and Home Secretaries) will not be appointed to any election-related posts until the elections are completed.
The ECI on Sunday announced that West Bengal will hold its assembly elections in two phases on April 23 and April 29.
According to sources, the new appointments come after the EC reviewed poll preparations for the 2026 West Bengal Assembly Election. During the SIR in West Bengal, several instances of non-compliance by outgoing Chief Secretary Chakraborty in the last few months were flagged to the ECI, including inaction in lodging an FIR against four election officials, two EROs and two AEROs. Other problems included irregularities in the hearings conducted by Basirhat BDO, delays by the state administration and transfer of three IAS officers. The outgoing chief secretary was also summoned by the ECI in February.
In August last year, retired Chief Secretary Manoj Pant was summoned to New Delhi by the ECI and asked to suspend two EROs and two eros on the grounds that they had committed “serious blunders” and “failed to discharge their duties” by violating the data security policy and sharing ER database login details with unauthorized persons.
On February 18, the West Bengal government, acting on the directions of the ECI, filed FIRs against four election officials – two EROs and two AEROs – in cases pending since August last year. BDO of Basirhat II was also suspended and Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty submitted a compliance report within the deadline fixed by the ECI.
