In unprecedented move, EC names Bengal home secy as poll observer in other state
Times of India | 29 January 2026
Kolkata: In an unprecedented move, Election Commission on Tuesday named state home secretary Jagdish Prasad Meena as one of the central observers for assembly election in other states. Along with Bengal, polls are scheduled this year in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
EC has also named Howrah police commissioner Praveen Kumar Tripathi and Asansol-Durgapur police commissioner Sunil Kumar Choudhary as central observers.
In a Jan 27 letter to Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal, EC undersecretary ML Meena listed 25 officers of the Bengal cadre — 15 IAS and 10 IPS — as central observers and called them for a briefing meeting in the presence of CEC Gyanesh Kumar, scheduled on Feb 5 and 6, in New Delhi.
"You are requested to ensure that all officers... is/are informed well in time to attend the briefing meeting on the stipulated date, time and venue for their respective batch. The officer(s) may be informed that unauthorised absence from the briefing meeting shall be viewed very seriously by the Commission and may lead to initiation of disciplinary proceeding," the letter read. The EC also asked Agarwal to serve the meeting notice on the officers within 24 hours and send a written confirmation report, along with an acknowledgement from the officers, to the EC.
According to an EC source, state govt was asked four times — the first on Nov last year, followed by three reminders in Dec — to provide officers' names for appointment as central observers. "State govt didn't send any names, and so the Commission itself finalised the names and published," sources said.
While admitting that the appointment of a home secretary of a state as an observer has never been heard of earlier, a section of senior bureaucrats also pointed out that, for the first time, Bengal's home department is headed by a secretary-level officer. "Now the state home department is headed by a 2004-batch IAS officer, which earlier was always headed by at least a principal secretary-level officer. Generally, EC appoints IAS officers at secretary-level or below as central observers. The Commission should have exempted Meena," a senior bureaucrat said.
However, such conventions are not borne out by deputy election commissioner Gyanesh Bharti's Nov 24, 2025, letter to former Bengal CS Manoj Pant, asking for IAS and IPS officers from 1996 to 2016 batches.