Lack of trust? EC turfs out its own senior officials
Times of India | 31 March 2026
Kolkata: The Election Commission on Monday recommended the transfers of state deputy chief electoral officer Subrata Pal and three other senior officials to various departments of the state administration with immediate effect.
Pal is the most important EC official to be transferred in a season of transfers that has taken political and bureaucratic circles in Bengal by storm since March 15. Pal was with the EC for the last seven years.
There was no official reason for the transfer. But a section of EC seniors have been expressing their wariness of the state administration's "penetration" in the EC for some time.
Pal was entrusted with the responsibility of managing logistics, media and advertisements among other things. The 2005-batch West Bengal Civil Services (Executive) officer will join the state health and family welfare department as a senior deputy secretary. State health department additional secretary Rahul Nath moved to poll management as a joint state CEO.
The state administration on Monday also removed three other senior officials after a proposal from Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal.
State CEO additional secretary Narendra Nath Dutta was transferred to the labour department. Another additional secretary, Supriya Das, was sent to the state the food processing industries and horticulture department. Bengal CEO joint secretary Mithu Sarkar was transferred to the minority affairs and madrasa education department.
The developments have come at a time when the EC's large-scale administrative reshuffle has prompted a legal challenge in the Calcutta High Court. Senior advocate and Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee questioned the EC's sweeping actions on Monday. This includes the single-day transfer of 267 officials, among whom are block development officers and officers-in-charge of police stations. Banerjee's PIL questioned the legality and timing of these decisions.